Live Auction 2578Indian & Southeast Asian Art
A thangka of Vajranaraitmya
Lot 564PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE NEW YORK COLLECTOR

A thangka of Vajranaraitmya

TIBET, 16TH CENTURY

Closed12 September 2012

Price Realised

USD 52,500

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A thangka of Vajranaraitmya
Tibet, 16th century
Dark blue-skinned Vajranaraitmya at center dancing on a lotus base holding a curved knife and skull cup with a khatvanga in the crook of her arm, backed by a flaming aureole at the center of a lotus blossom and square palace with smaller images of the female deity, all seated atop an enormous lotus blossom surrounded by the eight charnal grounds bordered by a multicolored leafy ring, all surrounded by the lineage teachers starting with Vajradhara and mahasiddhas in the clouds above and continuing below
18 5/8 x 14 5/8 in. (47.8 x 37.2 cm.)

Private collection, New York, 1960s

Specialist note

Nairatmya, a meditational deity in Tantric Buddhism, is best known in relation to Hevajra but she also has meditation mandalas of her own without the male counterpart, as in the present example. In this painting, the mandala of Nairatmya occupies the majority of the composition with the large circle in the middle. Starting at the top center and surrounding the mandala are the lineage teachers of the Lamdre System of Hevajra. Nairatmaya is also well-known as a teacher to the Indian Mahasiddha Virupa and she is second before Virupa in the teaching lineage of the Sakya Lamdre Lineage.