A Nepalese/Tibetan copper-alloy figure of Jalamanusha 16th/17th century The chimera typically...
A Nepalese/Tibetan copper-alloy figure of Jalamanusha
16th/17th century
The chimera typically depicted with human head and torso, wearing a five-pointed diadem, their neck, chest and arms bedecked in beaded jewellery, both hands holding an implement before their torso, all above a bird lower body with feathered wings curling into clouds, a long tail, and the talons of a bird of prey, standing on a stepped circular base, with traces of gilt overall, 10.7cm high.
尼泊爾/西藏十六/十七世紀 銅嘉拉滿努沙像
Cf. Jalamanusha (aquatic being), later known in India as Kinnara and in Tibet as Miamchi, is an originally Nepalese aquatic deity, or 'rain child', connected to the ancient concept of 'weather gestation' that is ubiquitous in South Asian art. In his article 'Does Art Imitate Life or Life Imitate Art? Nepal has a unique answer', in Orientations, March/April 2017, pp. 118-127, Gautama V. Vajracharya explains how the fundamental importance of monsoons to the economy of the region means that all the local deities, before they became associated with Buddhist or Hinduism, were originally related to atmospheric events.
Vajracharya also points out that the cloud-motif carved around the false entrances of ancient monolithic stupas in Nepal is known to Newari craftsmen as lahpvah, a classical Newari word for amniotic fluid; he links this to the pre-Hindu and pre-Buddhist concept of atmospheric gestation, where not only the terrestrial waters (rivers), but also the celestial ones (rain clouds) were seen as mother goddesses; ideally the cloud-mothers would conceive in autumn to then give birth to their rain-children at the very beginning of the monsoon. Such atmospheric gestation is the subject of the ceiling painting at Cave no. 1 in Ajanta, India, where, among other representations, there are images of human babies whose limbs gradually turn into clouds. This is the most likely origin of the Newari name for the cloud-foliage motif in Vajracharya's view, as well as one of the first representations of Jalamanusha.
Prior to taking the current form of half-human, half-bird creature, the author explains how originally Jalamanusha was depicted as a fetus visualised in the cloudscape, originally with the lower body turning into amniotic fluid or foliage, like in the Ajanta paintings. It is via Gupta depictions, where the cloud scrolls are interpreted as feathers, that Jalamanusha is then identified with the pre-existing depiction of a half-human, half-bird chimera. The iconography of the present lot, with its feathers curling into a cloud-foliage shape, perfectly resonates with this view of the aquatic deity and indicates a strong
Whilst relatively common in Southeast Asian iconography, Tibetan or Nepalese depictions of Miamchi, or Jalamanusha, are much rarer. See Bonhams, New York, 19 March 2018 for a Nepalese covered box in the form of Jalamanusha; and two more in the Dallas Museum of Art (acc. #PG.2012.6) and another in the Nalin collection published in Vajracharya, Nepalese Seasons, Rain and Ritual, New York, 2016, p.45, no.5.
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A Nepalese/Tibetan copper-alloy figure of Jalamanusha
16th/17th century
The chimera typically depicted with human head and torso, wearing a five-pointed diadem, their neck, chest and arms bedecked in beaded jewellery, both hands holding an implement before their torso, all above a bird lower body with feathered wings curling into clouds, a long tail, and the talons of a bird of prey, standing on a stepped circular base, with traces of gilt overall, 10.7cm high.
尼泊爾/西藏十六/十七世紀 銅嘉拉滿努沙像
Cf. Jalamanusha (aquatic being), later known in India as Kinnara and in Tibet as Miamchi, is an originally Nepalese aquatic deity, or 'rain child', connected to the ancient concept of 'weather gestation' that is ubiquitous in South Asian art. In his article 'Does Art Imitate Life or Life Imitate Art? Nepal has a unique answer', in Orientations, March/April 2017, pp. 118-127, Gautama V. Vajracharya explains how the fundamental importance of monsoons to the economy of the region means that all the local deities, before they became associated with Buddhist or Hinduism, were originally related to atmospheric events.
Vajracharya also points out that the cloud-motif carved around the false entrances of ancient monolithic stupas in Nepal is known to Newari craftsmen as lahpvah, a classical Newari word for amniotic fluid; he links this to the pre-Hindu and pre-Buddhist concept of atmospheric gestation, where not only the terrestrial waters (rivers), but also the celestial ones (rain clouds) were seen as mother goddesses; ideally the cloud-mothers would conceive in autumn to then give birth to their rain-children at the very beginning of the monsoon. Such atmospheric gestation is the subject of the ceiling painting at Cave no. 1 in Ajanta, India, where, among other representations, there are images of human babies whose limbs gradually turn into clouds. This is the most likely origin of the Newari name for the cloud-foliage motif in Vajracharya's view, as well as one of the first representations of Jalamanusha.
Prior to taking the current form of half-human, half-bird creature, the author explains how originally Jalamanusha was depicted as a fetus visualised in the cloudscape, originally with the lower body turning into amniotic fluid or foliage, like in the Ajanta paintings. It is via Gupta depictions, where the cloud scrolls are interpreted as feathers, that Jalamanusha is then identified with the pre-existing depiction of a half-human, half-bird chimera. The iconography of the present lot, with its feathers curling into a cloud-foliage shape, perfectly resonates with this view of the aquatic deity and indicates a strong
Whilst relatively common in Southeast Asian iconography, Tibetan or Nepalese depictions of Miamchi, or Jalamanusha, are much rarer. See Bonhams, New York, 19 March 2018 for a Nepalese covered box in the form of Jalamanusha; and two more in the Dallas Museum of Art (acc. #PG.2012.6) and another in the Nalin collection published in Vajracharya, Nepalese Seasons, Rain and Ritual, New York, 2016, p.45, no.5.
Condition Report:
