TIBET, 15TH CENTURY

The Buddhist goddess Jnana Dakini is the feminine aspect of Jnanadaka, a wrathful manifestation of the Buddha Vajrasattva, who presides over the five Tathagatas. With her name literally meaning the Wisdom Dakini, she is known for having transmitted the wisdom of the esoteric teachings of Buddhism to those great ascetics who achieved supreme magical powers through spiritual practice. In representations of such Mahasiddhas, a wisdom-bestowing dakini is often depicted as a female attendant or partner, dancing or seated beside the main subject, but Jnana Dakini is a powerful goddess in her own right. Depicted independently, she occupies the central position of her own mandala, as for example in a well-known thangka in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see S. Kossak and J. Casey Singer, Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet, 1998, p. 163, cat. no. 46; J. Watt, himalayanart.org, item no. 101367). Jnana Dakini most often appears in her Thirteen Deity mandala configuration, of which this powerfully cast bronze figure may have been a part.

Jnana Dakini is recognizable by her three faces and six arms, her attributes of kapala and battle-axe held aloft, and her lion mount. Her potent form is accentuated by snakes coiled around her ankles and torso, bone ornaments inlaid with hardstones, and a tiara of skulls securing the jatamukuta surmounted by a vajra hilt. Her ornaments seem not to adorn her but to emanate from within as does the triple pairs of arms grow from her shoulders. Her face is alert with the third eye open between flaming brows and sharpened teeth, flanked by disk earrings that also carry coiled snakes. Her lion mount is similarly alert, the teeth bared and the tail raised and curled into an elegant loop. The bold form is solidly cast, lending gravitas to divine wisdom.