A LARGE GILT COPPER REPOUSSÉ FIGURE OF PADMANARTTESHVARA

NEPAL, DATED SAMVAT 844 (1724 CE)

Footnotes

The sculpture's lotus base bears the Newari inscription, translated:

May it be auspicious. Purna Sina Buddhacarya commissioned this image of the great god Padmanartteshvara and consecrated it in the year of 844 [1724 CE], on Friday, the ninth day of the bright half of the Phalguna month [February-March]. May it be auspicious all the time.

Produced by the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley, this commanding yet elegant sculpture depicts a rarely seen tantric Buddhist deity, named Padmanarttesvhara, the 'Lord of the Lotus Dance'. Its radiating arms and nimble pose have a pleasing balance that adroitly conveys the deity's youth and vigor as well as the transcendental grace of his dance.

Dance is almost universally employed in ritual to channel, propitiate, or represent the divine. Some believe it to be the very first art form of our common ancestors. Long-revered in India, since the second century it has been regarded as the 'Fifth Veda', a venerable tradition on par with the most ancient and authoritative sacred texts.

Buddhism absorbed deities and doctrines of other faiths as it appealed to various congregations. Padmanarttesvara, for instance, adapted the popular form of the Hindu god Shiva as Natesha, 'Lord of Dance', as he is known in Northern India (Nataraja in South India). In this cosmic form, Shiva summons the creation and destruction of worlds underfoot. Meanwhile, excerpts from South Indian Tamil literature suggest how the symbolism of his dance can align itself through the Buddhist lens. (Or perhaps, the incorporation of Buddhist philosophies in Hindu devotional literature.)

"The Supreme Intelligence dances in the soul...for the purpose of removing our sins. By these means, our Father scatters the darkness of illusion (maya), burns the thread of causality (karma), stamps down evil (mala, anava, avidya), showers Grace, and lovingly plunges the soul in the ocean of Bliss (ananda). They never see rebirths, who behold this mystic dance."
(After Coomaraswamy, The Dance of Shiva, 1974, New Delhi, p.90.)

Curiously, despite being described in the sadhanamala, the c.5th-11th-century Sanskrit manual on Buddhist iconography, no image of Padmanarttesvara from antiquity is yet known in India. Meanwhile, at the northwest corner of Swayambhunatha stupa in Kathmandu, there is a large temple known as Shantipur, whose inner wall is decorated with a painting of the deity. This lot is most likely the largest sculptural version existing outside of Nepal. It survives with a seemingly contemporaneous, or more ancient, carved wood base.

We are grateful to Dr. Gautama Vajracharya and Dr. Pratapaditya Pal for their assistance in preparation of this lot.

Provenance
Kemper Collection, Germany
Christie's, Amsterdam, 11 October 1994, lot 287
Private Asian Collection


銅鎏金錘疊蓮花舞王像
尼泊爾，據銘文薩姆瓦特844年（公元1724年）
配老木雕雙獅底座。
喜馬拉雅藝術資源網2137號
造像：高96釐米（37 3/4英寸）;
底座：高22釐米（8 5/8英寸）

1,200,000-1,500,000港元

造像蓮花座上刻有尼瓦爾語銘文，譯為：

願吉祥。Purna Sina Buddhacarya委托創作此偉大的蓮花舞王之像，開光於844年（公元1724年），周五，頗岡月（2月-3月間）白分第九天。願吉祥永伴。

由加德滿都河谷之尼瓦爾人創作，此尊莊嚴而又優美的造像是一位罕見的密教本尊，蓮花舞王。其伸展的八臂與靈動的身姿形成美妙的平衡，表現出此神尊之年青活力與其舞蹈之超凡魅力。

舞蹈幾乎普遍存在於所有宗教儀式中，用來對神靈進行溝通、祭祀或扮演。有觀點認為其是人類祖先創造的首種藝術形式。印度對舞蹈尊崇已久，從二世紀始便視舞蹈為"第五吠陀經"，可見其崇高地位可與最經典神聖的四部吠陀經比肩。

為不斷吸引他宗信徒皈依，佛教吸納融合了外宗神祇與教義。比如蓮花舞王，就源自印度教濕婆一常見化身，印度北部稱為Nateshvara，即"舞王"（印度南部稱為Nataraja）。在此形態下，濕婆對腳下之世界進行創造與毀滅。同時，從印度南部泰米爾族文學作品裡摘錄的一段話，體現了濕婆之舞的像征意義與佛教觀點的呼應（或者可以說，印度宗教文學對佛教思想之吸收）：

"至高無上之智慧在靈魂深處舞蹈......為消除我等之罪孽。以此，我們的天父驅散了假像的黑暗（maya），灼燒因果律之線（karma），踩壓邪惡（mala, anava, avidya），大賜恩典，仁慈地把靈魂浸入極樂海洋（ananda）。他們目睹了此奧妙舞蹈的，從不見輪回。"
（摘自Coomaraswamy，The Dance of Shiva，1974年，新德裡，頁90。）

有趣的是，雖然蓮花舞王曾在約五至十一世紀的佛教圖像學梵語手稿成就法鬘（sadhanamala）中出現，但是目前尚未在印度發現任何以其為主題的作品。同時，在加德滿都斯瓦揚布納特佛塔的西北方有一座名為"天空"（Shantipur）的寺廟，其寺牆內面即飾有蓮花舞王壁畫。本拍品可能為存在於尼泊爾境外的體量最大之蓮花舞王像。其木雕底座與造像似屬同一時期，甚至更加久遠。

謹在此特別鳴謝 Guatama Vajracharya 博士協助翻譯此處銘文。

來源
Kemper收藏，德國
佳士得，阿姆斯特丹，1994年10月11日，拍品287號
亞洲私人收藏