TIBET, 18TH CENTURY

Hayagriva, or “the horse-headed one,” is a wrathful protector deity associated with Avalokiteshvara, the god of compassion. Images of Hayagriva date back to post-Gupta India, where he is depicted as a diminutive attendant figure resembling a Yaksha, positioned below and flanking Avalokiteshvara, or sometimes Tara (R. Linrothe, Ruthless Compassion: Wrathful Deities In Early Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhist Art, Boston, 1999, pp. 100-107). His iconography symbolises unwavering determination in overcoming obstacles and challenges, making him a guardian protector in many cultural traditions.
In the present lot, Hayagriva is depicted with a red body, three faces, six arms and a pair of wings. His faces are surmounted by a skull crown and a horse head rising from his wavy, upright hair. Standing in alidhasana on prostrate bodies on a multi-chromed lotus base, he is grasping his consort NaIratmya in yabyum position. Originally holding a kapala and kartrika in his dominant hands, Hayagriva extends his remaining arms outward in tarjanimudra, a gesture of fierce protection. He is dressed in a tiger-skin garment and a skirt of severed-heads, while his blue-skinned consort wears a leopard-skin skirt.