This richly-gilt and benevolent depiction of Vajrasattva, with his graceful posture, robust physiognomy, simple yet refined ornamentation, and the large and powerfully-cast lotus base, represents a rare example of sculpture from the Khasa Malla kingdom of western Nepal.
Comparatively speaking, little is known about the Khasa Malla Kingdom aside from their artistic patronage and their occasional raids of the Kathmandu Valley. The consensus among scholars is that this devoutly Buddhist Kingdom was born from a tribe led into the Karnali Basin (in what is now western Nepal) by their first king, Nagaraja in the twelfth century, and that the kings who succeeded him maintained a positive relationship with the western Tibetan subjects under his control, as evidenced by gifts to Tibetan temples.
Scholarship on this very distinct style of sculpture perhaps began with independent scholar Ian Alsop’s article, “Metal Sculpture of the Khasa Malla Kingdom” published in the Asian Art periodical, Orientations, June 1994, Volume 25, Number 6 and the expanded version he published on asianart.com in August of 2005. Therein, Alsop describes the style as “a clear adaptation of Kathmandu Valley style” distinguished by its redesigned ornamentation, petite yet weighty physiognomy, and extravagant gilding.
Many of the aspects associated with the Khasa Malla sculptural style are found in the present work. The joints of each finger, for example, are delineated through incised lines on the back and palms of the hands, a detail not often represented in Kathmandu Valley images but common to those from the Khasa Malla kingdom. Compare, for example, with the hands of a gilt-copper figure of Shadakshari Lokeshvara sold at Bonhams New York, 23 July 2020, lot 848, which also pays particularly close attention to the delineation of the finger joints. The details of the face in the present bronze also closely mirror many of the most well-known Khasa Malla works of sculpture: the steeply-arched brows that in this case join at the top of the nose above the deeply-recessed eye well with pronounced, mounded eyes. Compare, for example, with the related facial features of the famous image of Queen Dipa Malla in the collection of the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, D.C., and illustrated by P. Pal in Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure, Chicago, 2003, p. 22, fig. 2.
The base of the figure closely aligns with the traditional Khasa Malla aesthetic, with large, ornately rendered lotus petals below a thick, beaded rim. Missing from the present figure is the typical dark red pigmentation usually found in Khasa Malla bronzes.
Given that there are so few remaining examples of Khasa Malla sculpture remaining, the market for such works has been inordinately strong. A gilt-copper figure of Hevajra and Nairatmya sold at Christie’s New York on 22 March 2011, lot 425, for $158,500. More recently, the gilt-copper figure of Shadakshari at Bonhams New York sold for $956,075 and a few months later, a gilt-copper figure of Maitreya sold at Bonhams New York, 23 September 2020 for $680,075.
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