Himalayan Art Resources

Item: Mahakala (Buddhist Protector) - (1 face - 4 hands)

མ་ཧཱ་ཀཱ་ལ། ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོ། 玛哈嘎拉
(item no. 35992)
Origin Location Nepal
Date Range 1960 -
Lineages Kagyu, Karma (Kagyu) and Buddhist
Material Ground Mineral Pigment
Collection Private
Notes about the Central Figure

Classification: Deity

Appearance: Wrathful

Gender: Male

Interpretation / Description

The Glorious Sovereign Tantra of Mahākāla, Chapter 7. From the 84000 Translating the Words of the Buddha.

"The Four-Armed Form 7.­11 “The description of the four-armed form is as follows. The Blessed One takes on a form with four arms and one face for the sake of all the siddhis and to pacify all vighnas. His body is black, his fangs are bared, and he is terrifying. His belly hangs, his reddish-brown hair flows upward, and he has a yellow beard. He is adorned with the eight nāgas as ornaments and is seated on a human corpse, and his back rests against a tiger skin.

7.­12 “Visualize his four arms generated from the syllable hūṃ. His right hands hold a trident and hammer, and the left hold a hooked knife and skull bowl. He emits the sound phaṭ72 and is flanked by a yoginī on each side."

Related Items
Thematic Sets
Mahakala - Chaturbhuja (Single Form)
Collection: Private 1
Subject: Fifty Chapter Mahakala Tantra