
Mark Rasmussen
International Director
This auction has ended. View lot details



Sold for US$75,000 inc. premium
Our Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialist
International Director
Hund sculptures are exceptionally rare. They were produced under the Shahi dynasties (6th-11th centuries), which ruled in the lands formerly known under the Kushan empire as the ancient region of Gandhara. The most recent analysis of this subject is found in Michael Henss, "The Mystery of the 'Hund Statues': An Unknown Chapter of Central Asian Statuary," in Arts of Asia, January 2016, pp.28-43. As exemplified in this sculpture, the hair and regalia still echo the visual apparatus of Gandhara, while the rounder facial features are informed by the Gupta style.
This Mukhalinga depicts three crisply carved benign faces of Shiva, each with different coiffure and earrings, below the anatomical lingam. A similar and roughly contemporaneous example in bronze is published in Pal, Art of Kashmir, New York, 2007, p.87, fig.87. For an English description of the lingam's iconography as prescribed by the Visnudharma-Puram, see Prayabala Shah, Visnudharma-Puram, vol. 1, pp.144-5. Also see a more detailed translation of the chapter in Bhattacharya, Pratimalakshana of the Visnudharmittara, New Delhi, 1991, pp.29-6.
Bonhams is grateful to Pratapaditya Pal for his assistance in the preparation of this lot.
Provenance
Private Dutch Collection by 1958
Thence by descent