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The triad consists of a meditating Buddha seated
on the
coils of a serpent flanked to his left by the
feminine deity, Prajnaparamita,
and to his right by Lokesvara, “the Lord
of the World.”
The base is tiered, and the central
figure is elevated—a symbol of
sovereignty and pre-eminence in the spiritual
realm.
Wearing a full-length skirt drawn
together by an ornate belt, Prajnaparamita
grasps lotus flowers in her hands with arms
raised forward in the teaching mudra.
She is considered the incarnation of the
Divine World.
The four-armed Lokesvara
assumes an analogous pose, wearing a
short dhoti held in place by a belt and holding a
lotus bud and a vase.
The central Buddha figure is adorned
with armbands, heavy earrings and
jeweled necklaces, and a transparent-like robe is
incised along the borders that
cover the chest and drape over the left
shoulder.
All three figures display an introspective
dreamy expression implied by
the familiar formula of closed eyes and smiling
lips.
The Cambodian ideal
image of the Buddha evolved during the rise of
the empire. Indebted to the Gupta canon, the
massive, spheroid conception
of the head became the standard feature of
Khmer Buddhist iconography.
The separation of the hairline from the
face with a band developed in
this period, indicative of the tendency of Khmer
sculpture to assume a more hard
linear character through clear-cut definition of
features.
The appearance of the closed eyes and
lips distended into a
long mysterious smile became the Khmer
formula for indicating the self-contained
bliss and serenity of the Enlightened One.
Khmer heads contain a suggestion of
personality or individuality within
the mould of iconographical convention perhaps
due to the custom of attributing
these icons to idealized portraits of the reigning
monarch in the guise of a devaraja
or god-king.
In Khmer sculpture, the prevalence of the
iconography
of the Buddha seated on the coils of a giant
serpent is not entirely a portrayal
of the obscure legend of Sakyamuni's encounter
with a naga after his
enlightenment. It is a reference to
the legend that the nagas or serpent deities were
the divine progenitors and
protectors of the Cambodian throne. Regardless
of whether the state religion was
Hindu or Buddhist, the conception of the ruler as
the earthly embodiment of the
prevailing deity of the realm was an established
tenet of the Cambodian belief
system.
- (H.556)
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