Two-Headed Guardian with Four Arms

Viewing notes

A viewer's written impression — not a buyer review or first-hand record

This polychrome standing guardian has four arms, two heads and a body of blazing red — a presence that presses close. His black hair rises like flame; the front face glares with round eyes, its moustache and beard sharply drawn, while a second face peers sideways from behind his head, its brows no less fierce. His bare chest is full-muscled, a golden sun-disc ornament hangs at his breast, and over it he wears a long robe of blue-green patterning, two panels of golden scale armour showing at his thighs. Each arm holds something different — an axe raised high, a vajra gripped, one hand sealing a mudra at his chest, a long staff angled at his side, and the hand behind his head lifting a golden sphere. His bare feet stand on clouds above a red-and-gold plinth. Two heads watching two ways at once, as if every quarter lay under his eye — a mighty guardian for the side of a shrine door or the entrance of a hall.