A black schist stele depicting Bhairava
East India, Pala Period, 11th/ 12th Century
standing in pratyalidhasana, with four arms, two holding a dagger and a severed head, the other two raised aloft holding an elephant skin, with third eye, wearing a skull garland and a dhoti, mounted
excluding stand 24.5 cm. high
Footnotes:
Provenance
Sotheby's, Indian, Himalayan and South-East Asian Art, 24 November 1986, lot 165.
Private Belgian collection acquired at J. Tucker & A. Tozer Asian Art, London, on the 7th of July 2003, and thence by descent.

The deity depicted is probably Bhairava, a form of Shiva, who is often depicted holding the severed head of the God Brahma. For a 10th century bronze of Bhairava holding a severed head, see Imma Ramos, Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution, London, 2020, pp. 28-9, fig. 12. The inclusion of the elephant skin in the present lot may also be an allusion to Shiva's defeat of the elephant demon Gajasurasamhara. A Buddhist statue of Chakrasamvara in the British Museum, London, incorporates many of Bhairava's characteristics, thus aligning him with the deity (Inv. No. 1976,0927.1). This statue also features an elephant skin being stretched out behind him. For a 19th century painting of the Goddess Bhairavi, depicted with impaled elephants, see the catalogue for the exhibition, Tantra, Hayward Gallery, London, 1971, p. 42, fig. 168. For steles of Bhairava sold at auction, see Sotheby's, Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Works of Art, 20 September 2021, lot 365; and Christie's, Indian ad Southeast Asian Art Including Property from the Collections of Ariane Dandois and Robert H. Ellsworth, 21 September 2007, lot 88.
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