SWAT VALLEY, 8TH-9TH CENTURY

This widely published figure of Padmapani Lokeshvara displays classic stylistic elements from Swat Valley, including the almond-shaped eyes with delicate silver inlay, the pronounced modeling of the muscles around the navel with powerful upper torso, and the accentuated roundness of the beaded jewelry. A diminutive figure of Amitabha is visible on the crown of the head, further confirming the identity of the bodhisattva. The back of the lotus base bears an inscription.
Prototypes of the unusual double-lotus throne with overlapping petals in the Swat Valley can be seen as early as the seventh century, including a bronze figure of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no. 2012.247, as well as a contemporaneous Swat bronze figure of Avalokiteshvara offered at Bonhams Hong Kong, 2 October 2018, lot 14.
Compare the distinctive physiognomy, the right hand raised in varada mudra and the tiered lotus base of the current work with further contemporaneous bronzes depicting bodhisattvas, illustrated by U. von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, pp. 84-85, cat. nos. 6A, 6C—6E.