A RITUAL CONCH SHELL DEPICTING VISHNU AND GARUDA, NEPAL, 11TH CENTURY

Expert’s note:
The interior of the shell bears an old inscribed paper label, proposing a theory concerning the subject of the piece. ‘Conch-horn, 11^th cent. Nepal: Jibe by Bon or Orthodox Buddhist monks at the expense of the Hindu religion, showing obscenity!’ This suggests the carving may represent a sectarian jibe, produced by Bon or Orthodox Buddhist monks to mock Hinduism through the rare ithyphallic depiction of Vishnu. While such interpretations reflect earlier scholarship, it is equally possible that the imagery was intended symbolically, emphasizing divine potency rather than obscenity.

The white shell is deeply carved with a depiction of the four-armed Vishnu, shown standing beside another image of the god mounted on his vahana Garuda. Both forms hold the conch shell, battle club, lotus bud, and war discus. The present work is distinguished by the rare ithyphallic representation of Vishnu alongside his mounted form. As the conch is one of Vishnu’s principal attributes, its presence on this shell renders the subject particularly fitting.

The shell is further carved with various inscriptions in Newari and Nagari scripts.

Provenance: The Benny Rustenberg Collection, Amsterdam, 1970s. The Presencer Collection of Buddhist Art, acquired from the above. Bonhams Hong Kong, 2 October 2018, lot 178, estimate HKD 150,000 or approx. EUR 19,000 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing) and dated to circa 16^th/17^th century. Alain Presencer (b. 1939) is a renowned Tibetologist, collector, musician, and long-standing Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. He began studying Buddhism at age 13, later training under Professor Mathera Sadhatissa at the University of Toronto in 1961-1962, before relocating to the UK in the 1970s to immerse himself in Tibetan culture. Over the past 60 years, Alain brought to the West his knowledge of the Himalayan region. By gaining access to remote monasteries, he amassed a comprehensive collection of Tibetan Buddhist artifacts, encompassing thangkas, ritual implements, statues, mandala plaques, and singing bowls. He also produced a popular recording of his own performances, introducing this musical genre to a global audience with his album 'The Singing Bowls of Tibet', which has sold over a million copies to date. Significant pieces from his collection were sold at his personal sale at Bonhams Hong Kong on 2 October 2018. Subsequently, Alain Presencer wrote a book on his lifelong field of study, titled Tibetan Buddhist Art and published in 2019, featuring images of several objects from his collection.
Published: Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 61700.
Condition: Good condition with significant old wear, largely from ritual handling and worship, as expected for a Buddhist object of nearly one millennium in age. Traces of use and natural imperfections are present, including age cracks and fissures, rubbing, a few small losses, scattered minute chips to the edges, as well as occasional light nicks and surface scratches. The shell retains a naturally developed, lustrous patina. The stand with old wear, minor dents and nicks, and a fine dark patina overall.

Weight: 165.8 g (excl. stand), 276.3 g (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Length 11.4 cm

With an ancient bronze stand. (2)

Vishnu’s four hands hold objects that are symbols of his divine qualities and martial kingly attributes: a chakra or war-disk (representing the mind), a conch shell (the four elements), a lotus flower (the moving universe), and the club (primeval knowledge).

While the conch shell is an important ritual implement in both Hindu and Buddhist tradition, as Vishnu's battle trumpet or as a ritual instrument in Tibetan Buddhism often elaborated with silver mounts, relatively few carved examples are known. Lerner, in The Flame and the Lotus, 1985, cat. no. 29, illustrates three circa 11th century examples attributed to Northern India. The present example is more likely of later date and of Nepali origin.

Conch shells are often used as trumpets at the start and end of Hindu and Buddhist rituals. The object is sanctified with imagery and blessings, thus the sound passing through it demarcates sacred space and time, which a ritual is conducted in. Its blessed sound is also believed to shield from harmful spirits, and so is also blown at dusk. Carved ritual conch shells survive as far back as the Pala period, as evidenced by two 11th-12th century examples, one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 1986.501.6, the other depicting Vishnu and Garuda in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, accession number 2012-106-1.