KVPT’s Patan Darbar Earthquake Response Campaign - Work to Date - September 2016

The Sculpture of Harishankara
Gabriela Krist, Martina Haselberger, Marija Milchin
Introduction – Object Description
The sculpture of the god Harishankara, a manifestation
of Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Shankara) 1 , was originally
situated in the Harishankara Temple on Patan Durbar
Square, which collapsed during the earthquake in April
2015. The temple was erected in 1706 by Yogamati as
memorial for her father King Yoganarendra Malla. The
sculpture of the eponymous god is the focus of worshipping,
situated in the center of the temple building and
only accessible by priests. He is represented in standing
position, one half representing Shiva (proper right),
the other Vishnu (proper left). Both are depicted each
holding four symbolic attributes in their hands. While
Vishnu is accompanied by one of his wives (Lakshmi or
Sarasvati) standing beside him and his mount or vehicle
Garuda, Shiva is shown with his spouse (Devi or Parvati)
and his mount Nandi, the bull, bottom right. All of the
god’s attendants are intentionally depicted smaller to
emphasize his importance. Standing on lotus blossoms
whose tendrils surround them, each deity’s head is additionally
encircled with a flaming halo. Furthermore they
are all crowned and wear different kind of jewelry 2 .
In 2015 the team of the Institute of Conservation
was entrusted with the conservation of this valuable
sculpture.
Condition
By the earthquake of April 2015 the temple housing the
sculpture of Harishankara collapsed completely and the
object split into two pieces. Additionally, Parvati’s head,
the mace of Vishnu, Garuda’s hands and a small part
from the outer circle broke off.
In the course of first-aid measures undertaken by the local
stakeholders and volunteers the sculpture could be
recovered from the debris. Unfortunately small pieces,
with the exception of Parvati’s head, got lost. The whole
surface of the sculpture was covered with layers of ritual
offerings 3 resulting from continuous religious worshipping
in the temple over the years. The layers were especially
thick in the areas of the eight hands, the faces and
the encircling halo. The stone itself showed no signs of
structural damage. It is a very hard and dense, weakly
metamorphic material 4 as described by Leiner 5 which is
widely used in Patan.
Aim of the Conservation
The primary aim of the conservation is to re-adhere the
broken pieces that were recovered from the debris in
order to complete the object and to reduce the risk of
further loss.
Apart from this re-assembling of the sculpture, the treatment
of areas with missing parts is another issue of concern.
In dialogue with all stakeholders it is agreed that
the sculpture will be again re-installed for worshipping
inside the Harishankara Temple when it is re-erected.
Subsequently a full reconstruction of the missing parts is
required. Only in this way can the integrity and meaning
of the sculpture be fully restored, which is imperative for
its re-use in the religious context.
Conservation Treatments
Re-adhering
In a first step the broken sculpture was glued together.
As the crack runs diagonally, it was necessary to insert
pins in order to prevent the upper part from sliding
down during the gluing process. Therefore two holes
were drilled vertically into the upper and lower part of
the sculpture. Stainless steel pins with 10cm length and
0.8 cm in diameter were inserted and glued to both sides
with hybrid mortar (Hilti HFX). Additionally, dashes of
epoxy resin (Akepox 2020) were applied to the fractured
surface for reinforcement.
Parvati’s head was also re-adhered using the same epoxy
resin applied in a small drilled hole acting as a kind of
Harishankara Temple
Lower part of the broken sculpture.
Photograph by Institute of Conservation,
University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Opposite
Sculpture of Harishankara recovered
from the debris after the
earthquake
Photograph by Suresh Man Lakhe
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