Himalayan Art Resources

Item: Mahakala (Buddhist Protector) - Panjarnata (Lord of the Pavilion)

མ་ཧཱ་ཀཱ་ལ། ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོ། 玛哈嘎拉
(item no. 65085)
Origin Location Tibet
Date Range 1400 - 1499
Lineages Sakya
Size 26.04cm (10.25in) high
Material Stone
Collection Rubin Museum of Art
Catalogue # acc. #C2002.10.2
Notes about the Central Figure

Classification: Deity

Appearance: Wrathful

Gender: Male

TBRC: bdr:W25327

Interpretation / Description

Mahakala, Vajra Panjarnata (Tibetan: dor je gur gyi gon po, English: the Great Black One, Lord of the Vajra Pavilion [or Canopy]): from the Vajra Panjara Tantra.

Panjaranata Main Page | Panjarnata Outline Page

Panjaranata Masterworks | Mahakala Resource Page

Wrathful in appearance with one face and two hands he holds a curved knife and skullcup to the heart. A 'gandhi' stick rests across the forearms. From this magical emanation stick all other forms of Mahakala emanate. Hair flaming upward like orange fire, bared fangs and staring eyes, he is very fierce with all the wrathful ornaments and attire such as a crown of five dry skulls, necklace of fifty freshly severed heads, tiger skin lower garment and a long snake as a Brahmin cord. The neck is further adorned with an ornate scarf. In a squat posture on a corpse seat and lotus blossom he stands within a mass of flaming fire of pristine awareness.

Panjaranatha Mahakala is the protector of the Hevajra cycle of Tantras. The iconography and rituals are found in the 18th chapter of the Vajra Panjara (canopy, or pavilion) Tantra, an exclusive 'explanatory tantra' to Hevajra itself.

Jeff Watt 5-2003

Secondary Images
Related Items
Thematic Sets
Buddhist Protector: Mahakala Main Page
Mahakala: Panjarnata, Lord of the Pavilion (Main Page)
Medium: Sculpture - Stone
Collection of Rubin Museum of Art: Sculpture (Gallery 1)
Sculpture: Stone (Masterworks)
Collection of RMA: Best of Collection 2
Collection of RMA: Selected Sculpture
Mahakala: Panjarnata (Sculpture)
Sculpture: Black Stone (Himalayan: Tibet, Nepal)
Sculpture: Figurative, Three Parts
Mahakala: Panjarnata Masterworks (Sculpture)
Collection of RMA: Best of Collection (Sculpture)
Mahakala: Panjarnata Religious Context
Subject: Appropriation
Mahakala: Panjarnata, 3 Iconographic Topics