A hardstone-inlaid copper alloy figure of Khroda Vajrapani, Tibet, circa 13th century

Acquired in 1968/9.

A Collector’s Passion: South Asian Selections from the Nalin Collection, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2009.

Melissa R. Kerin, Selections from the David R. Nalin Himalayan Art Collection, New York, 2009, pl. 3.

This powerfully cast figure of a slightly corpulent form of Vajrapani, created in Central Tibet, draws on Pala influences. This is characteristed by the double undulating line below the chest, the thin Brahman's cord draped over the left shoulder, the striated topknot, inlaid semi-precious stones and horseshoe-shaped nimbus.

A larger 12th/13th century Tibetan copper alloy figure of Vajrapani, see David Weldon and Jane Casey Singer, The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, London, 1999, pl. 16.