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Source Description
Vajrayana, or esoteric Buddhism, uses gender and sexual union to communicate the merging of compassion (male) and wisdom (female) that results in awakening. Here, the wrathful male Buddha Hevajra and his female partner Nairatmya stand in ecstatic embrace. With hair painted the fiery orange of wrathful deities, Hevajra’s eight heads look in all directions. His sixteen hands hold skull cups containing animals (in his eight right hands) and deities representing worldly elements (in his eight left hands): earth, water, air, fire, the moon, the sun, and the gods of death and wealth. He raises two of his four legs in a position of dance, while lunging sideways with the other two. Hevajra wears a garland of fift severed heads, while Nairatmya wears one of skulls.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
98099
label
Hevajra and Nairatmya
core
obj
dtoType
object
citationUrl
pageCount
10
Source metadata
id
98099
sourceUrl
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Hevajra and Nairatmya
description
Vajrayana, or esoteric Buddhism, uses gender and sexual union to communicate the merging of compassion (male) and wisdom (female) that results in awakening. Here, the wrathful male Buddha Hevajra and his female partner Nairatmya stand in ecstatic embrace. With hair painted the fiery orange of wrathful deities, Hevajra’s eight heads look in all directions. His sixteen hands hold skull cups containing animals (in his eight right hands) and deities representing worldly elements (in his eight left hands): earth, water, air, fire, the moon, the sun, and the gods of death and wealth. He raises two of his four legs in a position of dance, while lunging sideways with the other two. Hevajra wears a garland of fift severed heads, while Nairatmya wears one of skulls.
provenance
Purchased by Walter Hauser [1], Charlottesville, Virginia, 1964-65; given to Walters Art Museum, 2016.[1] Purchased from an unknown dealer or bazaar shop in Kalimpong or Darjeeling in West Bengal
date
late 14th-15th century
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
sculpture (visual works)
imageCount
10
pageCount
10
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
25.5
height
21.1
depth
10.5
dimensionsRaw
H of figures: 10 1/16 × W: 8 5/16 × D: 4 1/8 in. (25.5 × 21.1 × 10.5 cm); H of base: 12 × W: 7 1/4 × D: 6 1/8 in. (30.5 × 18.4 × 15.5 cm)
Source extras
med
gilded copper alloy with paint and semiprecious stones
creator_ids
6868
collection_ids
INT
exhibition_ids
none
Page inventory
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photo
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