id: 169261 accession number: 2011.143 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2011.143 updated: 2020-07-09 09:02:32.394000 Hevajra, c. 1200. Cambodia, reign of Jayavarman 7th. Bronze; overall: 46 x 23.9 cm (18 1/8 x 9 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Maxeen and John Flower in honor of Dr. Stanislaw Czuma 2011.143 title: Hevajra title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1200 creation date earliest: 1195 creation date latest: 1205 current location: creditline: Gift of Maxeen and John Flower in honor of Dr. Stanislaw Czuma copyright: --- culture: Cambodia, reign of Jayavarman 7th technique: Bronze department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art collection: Cambodian Art type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 46 x 23.9 cm (18 1/8 x 9 7/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Beyond Angkor: Cambodian Sculpture from Banteay Chhmar opening date: 2017-10-14T04:00:00 Beyond Angkor: Cambodian Sculpture from Banteay Chhmar. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 14, 2017-March 25, 2018). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE (Chai Ma Antiques, Bangkok, Thailand, sold to Maxeen Stone Flower) date: ?-December 1987 footnotes: citations: Dr. John and Maxeen Stone Flower [1928-2010], Shaker Heights, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: December 1987-2011 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2011- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: Hevajra was an important figure signaling the practice of Buddhist rituals. King Jayavarman VII placed particular emphasis on Hevajra during consecration rituals and set up a colossal stone sculpture of dancing Hevajra at the east gate of his fortified city in the Khmer capital at Angkor. In the Cambodia of Jayavarman VII, tantric Buddhism became public and widespread, practiced together with other more mainstream forms of Buddhism, Hinduism, and ancestor worship.

The iconography of Hevajra is described in detail in a text that bears his name, the Hevajra-tantra, first composed in India probably in the 800s. Hevajra has eight heads, sixteen arms, and four legs. His left hands hold images of Indic gods; wealth, death, sun, moon, fire, wind, water, and earth. In his right hands are animals: bull, lion, human, cat, camel, sheep, horse, and elephant. They all sit in skull cups, objects also used in tantric rituals. He dances on a corpse that embodies ignorance and is surrounded by eight yoginis who dance triumphantly in a ring around him. Yoginis functioned as intercessors between human practitioners and enlightened beings.

Many bronze images of Hevajra were made during the reign of Jayavarman VII, but few survive in as pristine condition as this example. According to scientific analysis and curatorial reports, this sculpture survived in a clay vessel submerged in water, which accounts for its high tin content and unusual gray patina. Samples from the clay core reveal the presence of the mineral feldspar, a characteristic of clay from the Isaan plateau, on the other side of the mountain range not far from Banteay Chhmar, in present-day Thailand. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. page number: Reproduced: pp. 98-99 url: “Art of Asia Acquired by North American Museums, 2010-2011.” Archives of Asian Art, vol. 62, 2012, pp. 105–153. page number: Reproduced: 118, fig. 15 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43677806 "Recent acquisitions (2005-11) at the Cleveland Museum of Art." The Burlington Magazine 1312:154 (July 2012): pp. 525-532. page number: Reproduced: fig. VII, p. 527 url: Bassoul, Aziz. Splendour of Khmer Iconography: Ancient Cambodian Art of the 5th to the 13th Centuries in Major World Museums and Private Collections. Beirut: Cedar of Lebanon Editions, 2018. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 322-323, no. 145 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2011.143/2011.143_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2011.143/2011.143_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2011.143/2011.143_full.tif