AN INDONESIAN METAL TEMPLE HANDBELL, VAJRAGHANTApossibly 13th – 14th century19 cm highThe top of the handle with five-pronged vajra, the outer prongs curved outward, each of them with the base decorated with Buddhist elements, the central stem cast in a series of round rings,
AN INDONESIAN METAL TEMPLE HANDBELL, VAJRAGHANTApossibly 13th – 14th century19 cm highThe top of the handle with five-pronged vajra, the outer prongs curved outward, each of them with the base decorated with Buddhist elements, the central stem cast in a series of round rings, the top of the bell also decorated with high-relief motifs.Provenance: Acquired before 1975.The five prongs of the bell represent the five Dhyani Buddhas: Amoghasiddhi, Buddha of the North; Akshobhya, Buddha of the East; Ratnasambhava, Lord of the South; Amithaba, the Buddha of the West; Vairochana, the Supreme Buddha of the Center.A nearly identical vajraghanta is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see M. Lenner – S. Kossak, The Lotus Transcendent. Indian and Southeast Asian Art from the Samuel Eilenberg Collection, New York 1991, p. 210, n. 167);another very similar bell is in the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco (inv. N. 1991.15)