Item: Mahakala (Buddhist Protector) - Chaturbhuja (Four-hands)

Chaturbhuja Mahakala.

At the top center is Chakrasaṃvara in union with Vajrayogini in simplified form with one face and two hands. Chaturbhuja Mahakala comes from the Chakrasamvara tantras.

To the right of Chakrasamvara is Saraha holding an arrow, and to Chakrasamvara's left is Luipa eating entrails of a fish. On the proper right of Saraha is Ghantapa flying with his consort. Above them is Nagarjuna in the top left corner. At the top right corner is Krishnacarin. All of these Indian teachers were considered part of the eighty four mahasiddhas, and different lineages of Chakrasamvara are traced back to each of them.

The two Tibetan teachers wearing robes and scholar hats are unidentified.

White Mahakala with six arms is in the top right corner. Kakamukha, Raven faced Mahakala is to the right of the main figure. Simhamukha Dakini is in the bottom left corner. A tsen deity wearing armor and riding a horse is in the bottom right corner. Animal-faced dakinis from the retinue of Chaturbhuja surround the painting.

The protector at the bottom center is Rahula, with a non-standard iconographic form of two hands instead of four. Additionally Rahula is most commonly depicted with nine faces in addition to a crow's head on top of the crown. But in this case there are only eight faces and the crow is the ninth.

Previously published: Pal, Art of Tibet-Asia House Gallery, 1969, p.140, Pott, in Burma, Korea, Tibet, p. 219; F. Sierksma, Tibet's Terrifying Deities, Tokyo and Rutland, Vt., 1966, pi. 5, p. 269.

Nick Dharmadi 10-2026