Footnotes

• Pal discusses this bronze as an eccentric Pala-period sculpture, without any known peers, that is 'evidence of a talented sculptor with a flair for originality'. Most unusually, the snake goddess rests above a mysterious globe-like seat. She could have been worshipped in a Hindu, Jain, or Buddhist setting, as a reverence for snakes in South Asia saw them incorporated into all three religions, being associated with vital winding rivers, monsoons, and water. In tantric doctrine, subdued snakes symbolize a deity's ability to quell harmful forces and poisonous emotions.
  
  Published
  Pratapaditya Pal, The Elegant Image: Bronzes from the Indian Subcontinent in the Siddharth K. Bhansali Collection, New Orleans, 2011, pp.76-7, no.38
  
  Provenance
  The Siddharth K. Bhansali Collection
  Acquired in New York, circa 1990
  
  
  靈蛇女神銅像
  奥里萨或孟加拉地区，帕拉時期，十一世紀
  高14.6釐米（5 3/4 英吋）
  
  320,000-480,000港元
  
  Pal博士曾在其著錄中討論此尊銅像，稱其為帕拉時期的異乎尋常之作，"其創作者獨具匠心、天資出眾"，尚未知任何類似作品存世。此尊靈蛇女神端坐於球形寶座之上，實屬罕見。靈蛇是南亞宗教中的常見形象，出現於印度教、耆那教以及佛教經典之中，常被與河流、雨季及水聯繫在一起，因而此靈蛇女神可能為三教中任一教之信徒所崇拜。在密宗教義中，降伏靈蛇亦有特別的寓意，其象徵尊神除害消災之強大法力。
  
  著錄
  Pratapaditya Pal，The Elegant Image: Bronzes from the Indian Subcontinent in the Siddharth K. Bhansali Collection，新奧爾良，2011年，頁76-7，38號
  
  來源
  Siddharth K. Bhansali 珍藏
  於1990年前後購於紐約