EASTERN TIBET, 18TH CENTURY

The present painting depicts eight Indian siddhas, part of the group of eighty-four mahasiddhas according to the system devised by the twelfth-century Buddhist monk and scholar, Abhayakaragupta, also known as Abhayadatta Sri. Originally, this painting would have been part of a larger set of eleven paintings depicting all eighty-four mahasiddhas; the composition depicts the seventy-seventh through eighty-fourth mahasiddhas according to Abhayadatta Sri's numbering, and as such was the last painting in the set. The bodhisattva, Samantabhadra, is seated at top center, and above the siddha Darikapa, who is depicted flying on a cloud at top left. To the right, Putalipa, is represented sitting in a cave, meditating to a painted thangka image of Chakrasamvara and to the right is Upanaha, distinguished by his shoes. In the middle band, Kokilipa is seated on a meditation platform within a stand of trees at left, and the siddha Anangapa sits in a yogic pose within his thatched meditation hut at right. In the bottom row, the female Lakshmikara is shown in alidhasana on a tiger skin in the bottom left corner, Samudra sits on a raft at bottom center, and the siddha Vyalipa is depicted in the bottom right corner.
The set of paintings to which this thangka belongs are based off of descriptions of the eighty-four mahasiddhas as described by Jonang Taranata (1575-1635), and which were subsequently painted as murals in the Puntsogling Monastery. A number of sets of paintings were created at Palpung Monastery, likely following woodblock prints, and it is likely the present painting belonged to a Palpung-style set. The composition is closely related to a painting in the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art (acc. no. P1995.21.3), with only minor differences between the two paintings, indicating they were both painted from the same woodblock print.