A THANGKA OF PANJARNATA MAHAKALA
CENTRAL TIBET, 15TH CENTURY Distemper on cloth. Verso inscribed with mantras of sanctification ("om vajra vidya") and the ye dharma formula ("All phenomena arise from causes; Those causes have been taught by the Tathagata; And their cessation too has been proclaimed by the Great Shramana"). Verso also inscribed a four-line 'patience' prayer ("Patience for hardships is noble patience, [Leading to] supreme liberation, the Buddha has said. With respect to others, Monks should do no harm or cause distress"). Himalayan Art Resources item no.16890 51.5 x 46 cm (20 1/4 x 18 1/8 in.)
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寶帳大黑天唐卡藏中 十五世紀This important painting centers on a stout figure of Panjarnata Mahakala ("Lord of the Pavilion") standing over a prone man amid bright coiling flames with golden edges. Panjarnata Mahakala protects the tantric practice of Hevajra, a potent means through which an initiate can acquire 'buddha-consciousness'. With his head tilted to his left, the deity holds a skull cup and a ritual knife in his hands, and a golden gandhi across his elbows. He is joined by Ekajati and Shri Devi on the right, Bhutadamara Vajrapani and Kartaridhara Mahakala on the left, as well as various carrion-eating birds and wild dogs. Rife with detail, the artist has depicted Panjarnata Mahakala with intimidating scale, wearing luxurious jewelry, a textured tiger skin, and holding a skull cup showing realistic suture lines. Every other figure in the painting is also meticulously rendered. The very top register presents the sequence of lineage masters of Panjarnata Mahakala's practice. It begins with the Primordial Buddha Vajradhara, Brahmin Vararuchi, Pandita Deva Vajra, Shraddha Karavarma, and Lochen Rinchen Zangpo (958-1055). In the band immediately below Panjarnata Mahakala, are depictions of the charnel grounds either side of his lotus throne. Within the painting's bottom register are the central deity's inner and outer retinues, each dancing before a crimson aureole. The painting's donor engages Panjarnata Mahakala's practice in the bottom right corner, holding a vajra and ghanta, seated before a tiger-skin altar with various offerings. Stylistically, the painting's pointed, scrolling ends to the fiery mandorla and its multicolored, curlicue-tipped lotus petals are popular features of 14th-15th-century paintings from Central Tibet, as represented by the murals of the Gyantse Kumbum (HAR 42944) and Shalu Monastery (HAR 51510). Other 15th-century Panjarnata Mahakala thangkas forming good points of comparison comprise one held in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.82.6.4; HAR 85733), three in the Rubin Museum of Art (HAR 82, 135 & 65030), and another in the Robert L. Poster Collection (Pal, Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure, Chicago, 2003, p.244, no.160). Few stylistic periods exhibit the enthralling vigor of classical Tibetan painting as well. Provenance Private European Collection, acquired 1979/80