Buddhist Deity: Buddhakapala Iconography
Buddhakapala Main PageSubjects, Topics & Types:
- Description (below)
- Heruka Buddhakapala
- With a Red Consort
- With a Blue Consort
- Mandala (Eight Deity)
- Mandala (Twenty-five Deity)
- Tantra Classification
- Mandala Technical Glossary
- Confusions: Mahamaya
- Others...
There are several different forms of Buddhakapala. Sometimes he appears with a consort and sometimes without. He can appear in single aspect or with a mandala of eight or twenty-five retinue deities.
"Buddhakapala is blue with one face and four arms. The right two hold a double-sided drum and a curved knife. The left two hold a skullcup and a katvanga staff. Having three eyes and the pile of hair adorned with a vishva-vajra and crescent moon, a crown of five dry skulls and a necklace of fifty wet, adorned with the five mudras, an elephant hide as a lower garment, standing in a dancing manner, half vajra, expressing the nine moods of dance. [He] embraces the consort Vishvasukha Matri, red, [holding] in the right a curved knife and a skullcup in the left embracing the Lord, surrounded by the eight goddesses."
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Jeff Watt 1-2012 [updated 4-2017, 1-2020]
