A gilt-copper alloy seated figure of Shakyamuni Buddha, Eastern India, Pala period, 11th / 12th century

Collection of Charles Paul Marie Jules Gratry (1914-2005), acquired in India between 1946 and 1950, and thence by descent.

The Buddha is depicted according to the Maravijaya tradition, reaching forward to touch the earth with his right hand in bhumisparsha mudra, and his left hand in the posture of meditation. Shakyamuni is dressed in a diaphanous monastic robe (uttarasanga) with the inner garment (antarvasa) showing at the ankle and left shoulder, and is seated in vajraparyankasana on a double lotus pedestal. 

The figure is finely cast in copper and fire-gilded: compare the muscular proportions; the diaphanous robes with rounded hems; the fold of cloth in the left hand, with the eastern Indian eleventh century gilt copper crowned Buddha at Mindrolling Monastery, see Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, vol. I, Hong Kong, 2001, pl. 84C (fig. 1).

The face and hair are painted according to Tibetan ritual practice and the statue is likely to have been taken to Tibet, like the Mindrolling example, around the time of the demise of Buddhism in eastern India at the end of the twelfth century.

Charles Gratry (1914-2005), one of the heirs to the eponymous industrial textile company in Lille and Halluin, joined the French foreign office and arrived in India in 1946. He settled in Calcutta as a liaison officer, where he met with leading political figures including Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. He married a Brahmin woman and travelled extensively throughout India and Nepal. Passionate and deeply curious, he developed a strong interest in Buddhism and converted to Hinduism before returning to Europe in 1950.