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Aug 10, 2012

Vajrapani

700s

India, Kashmir

Bronze with silver overlay and gum tempera

Overall: 22 cm (8 11/16 in.); Base: 12.8 cm (5 1/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1971.14

Location

not on view

Description

The name Vajrapani means “he who holds (pani) the thunderbolt (vajra)” in Sanskrit. Adopted by Buddhists as a protector not only in India and the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet, Vajrapani also was incorporated into art of China, Korea, and Japan. The attributes of the thunderbolt and the club were derived from images of Zeus and Hercules that travelers from the Mediterranean world brought to the region as early as the 320s BC.

This rare, early bronze image of Vajrapani visually conveys his power to overcome fear and obstacles to enlightenment, and for this reason he is invoked by Buddhist practitioners. He sits on a pedestal in the form of a rocky mountain populated with wild lions, and he has tamed poisonous snakes to use as ornaments.

Provenance

1971–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Cleveland Museum of Art. The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1914. Mentioned: no. 175, p. 47; Reproduced: no. 175, p. 25 www.jstor.org

Pal, Pratapaditya. "Bronzes of Kashmir: Their Sources and Influences." Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 121, no. 5207 (October 1973): 726-49. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 747, fig. 16 www.jstor.org

Pal, Pratapaditya. Bronzes of Kashmir. Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1975. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 164, fig. 60

Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (France), Réunion des musées nationaux (France), and Haus der Kunst München. Dieux et démons de l'Himâlaya: art du bouddhisme lamaïque : [exposition], Grand-Palais, 25 mars-27 juin 1977. Paris: Secrétariat d'État à la culture, Éditions des musées nationaux, 1977. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 35, pp. 88 and 90

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 293 archive.org

Pal, Pratapaditya. "An Adorsed Śaiva Image from Kashmir and its Cultural Significance." Art International vol XXIV, no. 5-6 (January-February 1981): pp. 6-60. Reproduced and mentioned: fig. 24, pp. 44-45

Schroeder, Ulrich von. Indo-Tibetan Bronzes. Hong Kong: Visual Dharma Publications, 1981. Mentioned: no. 18B, p. 122; Reproduced: p. 123

Klimburg-Salter, Deborah E., and Maximilian Klimburg. The Silk Route and the Diamond Path: Esoteric Buddhist Art on the Trans-Himalayan Trade Routes. Los Angeles, Calif: Published under the sponsorship of the UCLA Art Council, 1982. Reproduced: p. 106, pl. 33

Czuma, Stanislaw. "A Unique Addition to the School of Kashmiri Ivories." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 8 (1988): 298-319. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 309, fig. 17 www.jstor.org

Reedy, Chandra L. Himalayan Bronzes: Technology, Style, and Choices. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 1997. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 157, fig K49

Ghose, Rajeshwari, Puay-peng Ho, and Chuntang Yang. Fa xiang chuan zhen: gu dai fo jiao yi shu [法相傳真 : 古代佛教兿術; In the footsteps of the Buddha: an iconic journey from India to China]. Hong Kong: Xianggang da xue mei shu bo wu guan, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 30, p. 189

Davidson, Ronald M. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 2

Pal, Pratapaditya, Amy Heller, Oskar von Hinüber, and Gautamavajra Vajrācārya. Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure. Chicago, IL: Art Institute of Chicago in association with University of California Press and Mapin Pub, 2003. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 59, p. 101

Johnson, Ken. "'Collecting Paradise' at the Rubin: A Curious Case of Divergence." The New York Times, July 3, 2015.

Debreczeny, Karl. Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism. New York, NY: Rubin Museum of Art, 2019. Reproduced: fig. 2.7, pp. 53, 62-63

Exhibition history

Images of Enlightenment: Gems from Buddhist Art of Asia. Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (September 26-December 15, 1998).

Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (April 5-August 17, 2003); National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC (October 19, 2003-January 11, 2004).

Focus: Tantra in Buddhist Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 5-September 15, 2013).

Collecting Paradise: Buddhist Art of Kashmir and Its Legacies. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL (organizer) (January 13-April 19, 2015); Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY (May 22-October 19, 2015).

Himalayan Gallery 237 Rotation – November 2016-April 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 7, 2016-April 10, 2017).

Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism. Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 1-July 15, 2019).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Vajrapani|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1971.14|year=700s|access-date=03 June 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Vajrapani

Vajrapani

India, Kashmir

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