Page 63 - Christies Indian and Himalayan Art Sept 2015
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100 PROVENANCE:
A RAKTAYAMARI FIVE-DEITY MANDALA
TIBET, 18TH CENTURY The Shelley and Donald Rubin Collection, acquired from Doris
Wiener, 28 November 1994
The wrathful deity Raktayamari stands in embrace with Vajravetali Rubin Museum of Art, gifted from the above in 2006
over a black corpse and recumbent red buffalo, at the center of the
two-dimensional circular diagram representing the top view of a PUBLISHED:
three-dimensional celestial palace, with one face and two hands, the
right holding a vajra and the left a skullcup, his hair faming upwards, Himalayan Art Resource (himalayanart.org), item no. 117
with large eyes and gaping mouth, Vajravetali standing with her left
leg wrapped around her partner, and holding a skullcup in her left In the Sarma Schools there are three main forms of Raktayamari;
hand, both adorned in bone and jewel ornaments, silk garments, with Raktayamari as a the solitary fgure; Raktayamari with fve deities
a necklace of severed heads and a lower garment of tiger and leopard (depicted in the present work); and Raktayamari with Thirteen Deities of
skins, surrounded by directional deities in embrace and geometric the Shridhara lineage. All of these are found in the 17th chapter of the
forms, gates and lotus petals within a circle of colored fames, with Raktayamari Tantra.
Buddhas, deities and Indian gurus in a blue sky above, and lamas,
worldly guardian deities and other related fgures set amidst a foliate The main Indian lineage includes: Vajradhara, Manjushri Yamari,
landscape, below Jnanadakini, mahasiddha Virupa, Dombi Heruka, Viratipa, Matigarbha,
Opaque pigments and gold on textile Gambhiramati, Vajrasana Ashokashri, Nishkalangka Devi, Revendra Prabha,
15 x 12 in. (38.1 x 30.5 cm.) Chag Lotsawa Choje Pal (Tibetan), etc. Many lineages of Raktayamari
entered Tibet and most are traced back to Virupa.
$20,000-30,000
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