Essay
Mistaken antiquity
In the early 1970s, when the renowned art historian Pratapaditya Pal came to Kathmandu to research his book, The Arts of Nepal (1974), he asked Nepali artist and art historian Lain Singh Bangdel to help him identify and date a mysterious sculpture found outside Bankali. What resulted was an academic argument and the unfolding of a most unusual story.
The Bankali temple, where Pal found the stone image is in Mrigasthali, a wooded knoll on the east bank of the Bagmati river, where Lord Shiva is believed to have been seen wandering, disguised as a mriga (deer).