rAjalIlAsana in Cambodia?

N. Ganesan naga_ganesan at HOTMAIL.COM
Sat Dec 16 11:39:01 UTC 2000


There are Pallava reliefs in Kanchipuram VaikuNTapperumAL temple
showing royal court scenes with a King seated in the pose of
royal ease - (mahA)rAjalIlAsana. Also, Pallava Daksinamurtis,
Chola Ayyanar and Avalokitezvaras. I know of rAjalIlAsana avalokitas
from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, South China. In Old Campa,
there are royal court scenes with a king sitting in r. pose,
Also, a beautiful 'Siva in rAjalIlAsana there.

rAjalIlAsana is the posture with one leg either freely hanging
from a couch or in a cross-legged fashion, while the other leg
is raised up forming an inverted V-shape and this raised foot is set
on the couch, Often, the hand is resting on the knee of this lifted
inverted V-type leg.

Cambodia had a King Mahendravarman almost at the same time
as Pallava Mahendravarman. Their titles were citrasEna and
citrakArapuli respectively. Jean Boisselier says Khmer
art was highly influenzed from the art of South India.
Hence, my question:
In Cambodia, have any avalokitezvara and/or Shiva sitting in
rAjalIlAsana ever found??

Thanks a million for guidance or sources,
N. Ganesan

Related: I saw a Gupta period Shiva sitting in rAjalIlAsana.
Except this rare exception, almost comparable to rare Skanda
sculptures from Guptan age, I do not know avalokita or siva
sitting in rAjalIlAsana prior to 7-8th centuries. Are there
any r. Shiva or Avalokita from Bengal, U.P., Bihar, Kashmir,
Nepal, Tibet, Central Asia in the time period before, say,
8th century?

See also:
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind9904&L=indology&P=R12081
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind9904&L=indology&P=R12161

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