Religious Figure / Virupa

Top half of a badly damaged hollow cast gilt figure. Head crushed and fingers broken off, additional ornaments that are likely to have been attached to the remaining brackets and lugs are missing, as is the figure's plaited and coiled hair. From the position of the arms it is possible that this could be a figure of Virupa, the great tantric practitioner (although the figure seems to wear the jewels of the Bodhisattva). His right hand stretches out, pointing upwards in the arresting the sun mudra. This probably represents the story of Virupa holding the position of the sun after an innkeeper asks him to pay his bill. Virupa tells the innkeeper that he will settle, when the sun's shadow reaches a certain point. The local King eventually settles the debt. His left hand is in the teaching mudra.