Religious Figure / Manjushri with Sarasvati

Copper alloy statue of Manjushri with Sarasvati seated on his knee . He sits in the lotus position on a lotus pedestal, with a large architecture platform supported by elephants beneath. He has four faces each with a vertical third wisdom eye. He has eight arms and holds a dorje in front of his heart in his first right hand, and a bell in the left, in the second pair of hands are a bow and arrow, in the third are a lasso and ankus and in the fourth is his sword of wisdom and a lotus flower. His partner Sarasvati sits in the Bodhisattva pose of royal ease on his left knee. She also has a vertical third or wisdom eye. Her left hand forms a protective gesture of generosity. Both wear the five jewelled crown and ornaments of the Bodhisattva. To the back of the statue a large inscription in Nepalese dates the figure to Newari year 945. There is also a fitting for a nimbus, which is missing.