ghanta; bell BM-1948-0716.11.a

Period:Unknown Production date:19thC (?)
Materials:brass, bell metal, gold,
Technique:cast, gilded,
Subjects:religious object
Dimensions:Height: 23 centimetres

Description:
A bronze Ghanta or handbell curved with a female head in the middle, paired with a vajra (1948,0716.11.b), stored with this object in a red leather covered container.
IMG


Comments:Zwalf 1985The ‘vajra’ and ‘ghaṇṭā’ were the most important ritual implements of Vajrayāna Buddhism. The ‘vajra’, symbolising the unbreakable Absolute, hardly survives as a ritual object from Buddhist India but is found in Indonesia, Nepal, Tibet and Japan. Paired with the bell, it symbolised compassion or the ‘male’ skill in means for salvation; the bell was the symbol of supreme knowledge seen as female. Together they constituted a unity of coefficients for salvation. Held in the right and left hands respectively to make elaborate ritual movements, they are also the attributes of many deities.