18th century, Tibet, Hayagriva, gilt bronze with pigment, 12,7 cm, private collection, Auction M0009, The Art of the Himalayas lot 83, Pundole’s
The dharmapala Hayagriva is identified by the neighing horse’s head at the top of his flaming hair. On paintings he has a red or a black body. The position of his right hand suggests that this is the black form, who wields a sword in his right hand and has a hook in the other. He stands on two victims (who represent enemies and hindrance), adorned with snakes, a five-skull crown, a garland of severed heads.
Apart from the usual tiger skin loin cloth worn by wrathful deities, he has the hide of an elephant and a flayed human skin over his back.
18th century, Tibet (or Nepal?), Hayagriva, wood with paint, 35 cm, private collection, Auction 18 lot 27, 30th September 2023, Hardt
Red Hayagriva in his two-arm form, brandishing a club in his right hand and a lotus in the other, which corresponds to the Nepalese iconography (we saw a similar Vajravarahi from a monastry in Mustang, Nepal, on Theodore Bruce ). There is a horse’s head on his own and he has the wings of an heruka.