Trying to determine the correct name of this bronze deity (Ga.3455) in the collection of the National Museum isn’t straightforward.

Trying to determine the correct name of this bronze deity (Ga.3455) in the collection of the National Museum isn’t straightforward. You can pick from three, depending on which source you believe. Take your pick from Preah Pisnukar, Vishvakarma or Parasurama which have all been assigned to this statue at one time or another, after it arrived in the museum in 1956 from an unrecorded location. What we know for certain is that the bronze image is 14.5 centimeters tall and is kneeling with his left leg on the ground and his left hand on his knee. His right hand is holding what looks like an adze, a tool similar to an axe with an arched blade at right angles to the handle, resting the weight on his right shoulder. His pleated sampot folds down into his lap and he is decorated with jeweled bracelets, armbands, a double necklace and long pendant earrings. His diadem is held in place by a band and is topped by a conical chignon. The face is dominated by large almond-shaped eyes and full-bloodied lips below a thick moustache. Now onto the naming of this deity. I have to admit a fondness for Vishvakarma, the celestial architect of the gods and sacred patron of the arts. I recall a visit to the temple of Phnom Chisor where I took the time to count no less than 23 sandstone lintels, all of them with the same deity sitting above a Kala monster holding his stick of command, the danda. Apparently, Vishvakarma is the Sanskrit name for Preah Pisnukar, also acknowledged as the divine craftsman of the whole Universe, responsible for the greatest of buildings, Angkor Wat, and still held in high regard today. Both are credited with consummate skill in fine arts, architecture, sculpture, painting, whether in construction or the decorative sense – so clearly, a pretty important deity, who came to greater prominence during the reign of King Jayavraman VII. The third potential identity is Parasurama, quite literally ‘Rama with an axe,’ and the sixth avatar of the god Vishnu, who has a much darker reputation. Best known for decapitating his own mother and the extermination of the Ksatriya warrior caste, he has six bronze figures in the museum’s collection under his moniker already. So, take your pick, though I favour Vishvakarma. On that note, I have also included two more bronze statues of the deity for comparison, currently at the Met Museum in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago. *With kind permission of the National Museum of Cambodia.