Himalayan Art Resources

Item: Indian Adept (siddha) - Virupa

རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་གྲུབ་ཆེན། 印度大成就者
(item no. 101354)
Origin Location Tibet
Date Range 1200 - 1299
Lineages Sakya and Buddhist
Size 55.90x49.80cm (22.01x19.61in)
Material Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton
Collection Kronos Collection
Notes about the Central Figure

Classification: Person

Appearance: Mahasiddha

Gender: Male

TBRC: bdr:P3293

Interpretation / Description

Virupa, Yogeshvara (Tibetan: nal jor wang chug bir wa pa. English: the Lord of Yoga, Ugly One): foremost in magical attainments among all the siddhas. He is surrounded in registers on all sides by the Eighty-four Great Siddhas of India and beyond.

Essay: A Mystery Solved

Video: Two Important Virupa Paintings

An inscription written on the reverse claims that the painting had been blessed by Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen (1182-1251).

"The Great Lord of Yoga Birwapa surrounded by the Eighty Mahasiddhas. The ritual sanctification was performed by the Lord of Dharma Sakya Pandita.'

(See HAR on Patreon for an essay and video of this painting).

Jeff Watt 11-2021


Translation of the Inscription

Line 1 རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེན་པོ་
The Great Lord of Yoga [Yogeshvara]
Line 2 འབིར་བ་ལ་འཁོར་གྲུབ་ཆེན་བརྒྱད་བཅུས་བསྐོར་བ
Virupa and/with the 80 Mahasiddhas surrounding
Line 3 འདིའི་རབ་དུ་གནས་པའི་ཆོ་ག་ཆོས་རྗེ་ས་སྐྱ་པན་མཛད
This Ritual Sanctification [was] done by the Dharma Lord Sakya Pandita
*ས་སྐྱ་པན is a title used for the scholar of Sakya Kunga Gyaltsen (1182-1251)

Shinzo Shiratori 9-2024


Essay: A Masterwork Depicting Tantric Masters of the Sakya Tradition by Jane Casey

Secondary Images
Related Items
Publications
Publication: Sacred Visions
Contents: Mahasiddha List (Buton Rinchen Drub)

Thematic Sets
Subject: Composition - Registers
Indian Adept (Mahasiddha): Painting (Early Period 11th-14th)
Subject: Travel Bag (Monks & Siddhas)
Subject: Three Great Nepalese Style Paintings
Indian Adept: Virupa - A Mystery Solved
Indian Adept: Virupa (Left Pointing Gesture)
Indian Adept: Virupa Art History
Video: Religious Context (YouTube)
Nepal: Masterworks (Painting)
Subject: Inscriptions (Historical Information)
Indian Adept: Virupa Main Page
Indian Adept: Virupa (Siddha Sets)
Indian Adept: Virupa (Paintings)
Indian Adept: Virupa (Painting Masterworks)
Buddhist Deity: Vajradhara & the Eighty-four Mahasiddhas (Single Composition)
Indian Adept: Siddha Appearance Masterworks (Painting)
Indian Adept: Hands of the Dakini/Deity
Subject: Sakya/Shalu Mahasiddha System
Publication: A Concise History of the Glorious Sakyapa School
Region: Nepal, Miscellaneous Subjects
Exhibition: Mandalas, Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet