BUDDHA ON MUCHALINDA

GRAY SANDSTONE

BAYON; ANCHOR WAT STYLE

11^TH /12^TH CENTURY (SOTHEBY’S ATRIBUTION)

91.4 cm/ 26” h.

DESCRIPTION: A Khmer stone figure of Buddha on Muchalinda: The Lord Buddha is seated in dhyana mudra on the three coiled body of the naga, its fragmentary seven heads rising up behind the Lord Buddha’s head forming a nimbus. The simplicity of the body is sharply contrasted with hood which is delicately inscribed with scales and stylized cakras. Buddha’s hands resting in his lap in dhyana mudra, his smooth undecorated hair surmounted by a conical usnisa. An example of the Khmer smile which characterizes much of Khmer art may be seen in the face. “The iconography of the Buddha sheltered by the naga hood alludes to the episode in the life of the Buddha 42 days after the attainment of Enlightenment, when the naga king Muchalinda protected him from a rainstorm with its hood.”*