VAJRASADA, FORM OF SARASVATI

It is an image of a female deity standing. In her left hand she holds a lotus with a book and in her right hand another lotus with an unidentified symbol. She has a round face with slanted features, a five-cornered headband, the ushnisha is very high, and her hair, painted blue, forms small parallel lines under the headband and falls in three long locks. It is adorned with jewels with inlaid stones, among which the belt with pendants, which corresponds to the type shown in the Mongolian pictures. She wears a shawl and a long skirt, which leaves the feet uncovered, with a lot of flight and movement knotted with a bow at the waist. The flower stems are made separately and crimped in the image. The back is worked with great care, especially highlighting the moving folds of the skirt. It rests on a base of a single row of wide lotus petals with visvavajra top in the center and a kind of yin?yang. It has features of obvious Chinese influence such as the features of the face, the shawl, the bow that holds the skirt, …, along with others that appear in the bronzes from Mongolia, but nevertheless the type of face so rounded is incongruent with the Mongolian style. This makes us think it is a late and eclectic piece, but in any case from the northern “Lamaist” areas. R.C.M. / Extracted from: Isabel CERVERA FERNÁNDEZ: Fundación Rodríguez-Acosta. Asian Art Collection. Granada, 2002.Bibliography: COMAS, R.: The art of the Himalayas in the Spanish collections: the bronzes. Madrid, 1993, p. 107. / GUPTE, R. S.: Inconography of the Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. Bombay, 1972, p. 121 and 152.