Vajrabhairava Yamataka with Consort (Sanskrit)

27” x 39” ◊ Ground mineral pigment and gold on cotton cloth

Vajrabhairava means the "Adamantine Terrifier" and Yamataka means "Remover of the Obstacle Yama (the Judge of the Dead)." This 34-armed, 16-legged awesome form of Ekavira Vajrabhairava Yamantaka has a central bulls head with long black horns and the body colored dark blue. The main and largest head wears a tiara of human skulls surmounted by an elaborate five-fold gilded crown embellished with the Buddhist "Wheel of Law" motif. The eyes are large, protruding and blood-shot, a "third eye" located at the center of the forehead. In total there are eight main heads - a yellow one to the proper right, a red one to the left, followed by others of pink, white/grey and blue - plus a ninth small crowned red head of the Bodhisattva Manjusri at the apex. In Tantric texts, these nine heads are linked to the nine classic "sentiments."

The central main hands of the deity hold a chopping-knife (karttrka) and human skull-bowl (kapala), colored gold and ornamented by pearl chains, flammiforms and scepters (vajra). The lower main hands hold a magical knife (purba) and the severed multi-faced head of Brahma the Creator. The upper main hands hold a red right hand holding an arrow and an elaborately decorated golden shield with a Chinese-style makara or dragon face at the center. The other hands hold a ritual scepter (vajra), lance, axe, double-drum (damaru), Wheel of Law (dharmachakra), dagger, swirling flames, ritual bell (ghanta), skeleton-staff (khatvanga), banner, a red human right foot, a transfixed corpse, various magical knives and stakes, a noose, a skin, and other Tantric weapons.