Himalayan Art Resources

Buddhist Deity: Dvajagrakeyura Main Page

Dvajagrakeyura Masterworks

Subjects, Topics & Types:
- Description (below)
- Three faces, four arms
- Four faces, four arms
- Four faces, eight arms
- Wood Blocks & Banners
- Prayer Flags Main Page
- Female Imagery: Introduction
- Masterworks
- Confusions: Ekajati, Mahakala, Krodha Tara, Devi Vetala, Bhurkumkuta
- Others...

Videos:
- Dvajagrakeyura
- Prayer Flags

Dvajagrakeyura (banner ornament, banner armlet) is a Tantric Buddhist meditational deity represented in several different forms, colours, numbers of heads and arms, etc. Aside from the original Sanskrit source text, Dvajagrakeyura Dharani, her initiation rituals and meditation texts are found in the One Hundred Sadhanas of Bari (Bari Gyatsa) of Bari Lotsawa, The Ocean of Sadhanas (Drub Tab Gyatso) of Panchen Dragpa Gyaltsen and the Rinjung Gyatsa of Taranata. (See Iconography: Source Texts and Examples).

[67] "...Dhvajagrakeyura, [with] three faces and four hands. The body and main face are black, the right red and the left green. Having bared fangs and three eyes. The two right hands hold, a sword and a lasso. The two left, a katvanga and chakra. Yellow hair bristling upwards. Adorned with a garland of skulls and wearing a lower garment of tiger skin and an inner garment of yellow cloth. [With] the belly hanging down [and] standing with the left [leg] extended." (Konchog Lhundrub. Bari Gyatsa).

An Ocean of Methods of Accomplishment
107. Dvajagrakeyura, Black with Three Faces and Four Hands
108. Dvajagrakeyura, Yellow with Four Faces and Four Hands

The Sanskrit text for the deity Dvajagrakeyura instructs the Buddhist follower to make a banner-flag displaying the complete long dharani formula. This is typically done by carving a wood block and making a print (see example below).

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Jeff Watt 3-2004 [updated 4-2017, 1-2020]


Toh 612/923. The Incantation, The Arm Bracelet Atop the Standard. རྒྱལ་མཚན་རྩེ་མོའི་དཔུང་རྒྱན་གྱི་གཟུངས། · rgyal mtshan rtse mo'i dpung rgyan gyi gzungs. dhvajāgrakeyūradhāraṇī.