Vajrapani thumbnail 1
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Not currently on display at the V&A

Vajrapani

Sculpture
unknown (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Part of a figure of an impish-looking Vajrpani holding a large vajra on the open palm of his left hand with his right hand clasping its middle against his chest. His head is modelled tilted to his left with round popping-out eyes with protruding lids and incised pupils in deep eye sockets. He has a short nose and round cheeks with his mouth half open with a pronounced bow in the upper lip. His cap-like hair is modelled with circular depressions above a raised hairline. He has large ears with long pierced lobes. His torso is naked except for an uttariya wrapped round the front of his shoulders and looped round the lower part of his torso revealing his muscular forearms and chest.


Object details

Object type
TitleVajrapani (Generic title)
Materials and techniques
Modelled lime stucco
Brief description
Vajrapani. Lime stucco, Gandhara.
Physical description
Part of a figure of an impish-looking Vajrpani holding a large vajra on the open palm of his left hand with his right hand clasping its middle against his chest. His head is modelled tilted to his left with round popping-out eyes with protruding lids and incised pupils in deep eye sockets. He has a short nose and round cheeks with his mouth half open with a pronounced bow in the upper lip. His cap-like hair is modelled with circular depressions above a raised hairline. He has large ears with long pierced lobes. His torso is naked except for an uttariya wrapped round the front of his shoulders and looped round the lower part of his torso revealing his muscular forearms and chest.
Style
Object history
Acquired from Evert Barger, Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Bristol and Philip Wright, V&A Museum, as part of the collection of finds excavated during their expedition to the Swat valley in 1938. This object was numbered 100 in Barger's lists.
Subject depicted
Bibliographic reference
Barger, E. and Wright, P., ‘Excavations in Swat and Explorations in the Oxus Territories of Afghanistan, a detailed report of the 1938 expedition’, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, vol. 64, Calcutta, 1941.
Collection
Accession number
IM.77-1939

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Record createdJune 20, 2002
Record URL
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