A BLACKSTONE STELE DEPICTING PADMAPANI

Description:

North-East-India, Pala period, 9th/ 10th cent.
H. 39,5 cm
Seated in lalitasana on a lotus base placed above scrolling lotus tendrils, his right foot resting on a smaller lotus, his right hand lowered in the varadamudra while the left is placed behind him on the base grasping the stem of the padma lotus flowering along his upper arm, wearing dhoti, scarf across his chest, upavita, bejewelled, his face displaying a serene expression with almond-shaped eyes below arched eyebrows that run into the nose-bridge , smiling lips, elongated earlobes, his hair combed in a chignon set with a diminutive figure of Buddha Amitabha to the front, secured with a simple tiara and an oblong halo behind carved with the remains of the Buddhist Creed, on wood base.
Old Bavarian private collection, assembled since the early 1960s - Wear, slightly chipped