Himalayan Art Resources

Item: Nairatmya (Buddhist Deity) - (4 hands)

རྡོ་རྗེ་བདག་མེད་མ། 无我佛母(萨迦派本尊)
(item no. 87454)
Origin Location China
Date Range 1400 - 1499
Lineages Gelug and Buddhist
Material Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton
Collection Victoria and Albert Museum
Notes about the Central Figure

Classification: Deity

Appearance: Semi-Peaceful

Gender: Female

TBRC: bdr:W25326

Interpretation / Description

Nairatmya with four arms.

"Vajra Nairatma, [with] a body black in colour, one face and two hands. The right [hand] holds aloft a curved knife and the left a skullcup to the heart, and carrying a katvanga [in the bend of] the elbow. Having three eyes and bared fangs. Yellow hair bristling upwards. A crown of five dry human skulls and a necklace of fifty. Adorned with the five ornaments of bone. Wearing a lower garment of tiger skin. Standing on a corpse seat in a dancing manner with the left leg extended in a half [vajrasana] posture." (Konchog Lhundrub, 1497-1557).

Jeff Watt, 6-2006

Related Items
Thematic Sets
Painting Style: Ming Period Style (1368 to 1644)
Collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Buddhist Deity: Vajra Nairatmya (Masterworks)