Mouseover Zoom loading...

Lot 40

A THANGKA WITH SUPERB BROCADE MOUNTS OF HEVAJRA AND NAIRATMYA

Estimated Value:

4.000 € - 6.000 €

Schätzpreis:

13.000 €

Description:

Tibet, 18th c.
67 x 45 (145 x 70,5) cm
Tempera and gold on cotton fabric, precious original brocade border, with two woven phoenix birds and the sign of "Long Life". Hevajra, wears a skull crown on each of his eight heads in conjunction with the fivefold crowns of the Tathagatas. The fivefold crown points to the overcoming of the five poisons of the mind: anger, greed, ignorance, jealousy and pride, which are transformed into positive virtues through the wisdoms of the five Buddhas (Tathagatas). With two legs he stands striding out, and with two more bent legs dancing on four superimposed bodies above a lotus throne. These are four Hindu gods: Brahma, Rudra, Upendra and Indra, overcome by Hevajra His four legs symbolize the four communicative qualities: giving, praise, understanding and drive. The eight differently colored faces, symbolize the eight spiritual attainments of an enlightened one. Their expressions are different: that of the top gray head is wrathful and blazed with flames of wisdom. His red-rimmed eyes symbolize love and compassion. The third eye in all the faces symbolizes the union of compassion and wisdom, and the triple number of eyes of each face points to his clear knowledge of the past, present and future. Hevajra looks smilingly into the eyes of his wisdom partner (prajna) and holds her in loving union (yab-yum). The loving union of the pair of gods is symbolic of the unio mystica, the mystical union of method - in the form of the god, and wisdom or insight into the emptiness of everything - in the form of the goddess. Her name is Nairatmya "she who is without I". She embodies the highest wisdom, which has stripped off all attachment, and is free from all desire, for which cult knives and the blood-filled skull bowl in her raised hands are a sign. Hevajra holds in each of his eight pairs of hands a skull bowl in which eight deities are enthroned on the left and seven animal figures and a human being on the right. In the main hands these are the black earth god and a white elephant, in the following pairs of hands, from bottom to top, the yellow wealth god Vaishravana and a rat, the dark death god Yama and a griffin, the red sun god and a man, the white moon god and a camel, the green wind god and a bull, the red fire god and a donkey, the white water god and a horse. Hevajra's right hands with the animals are an expression of his activity, the left hands with the deities an expression of his wisdom.
Thus, Hevajra symbolizes the unification and abolition of all opposites, in that his hands, which are imagined in motion, connect the respective polarities. The skull bowls in which animals and deities are enthroned symbolize the "sixteenfold emptiness" of all appearances. Hevajra's destructive aspect - out of compassion - becomes recognizable by standing with his two feet on four deities, symbolically subjecting them to his rule. These four high Hindu deities are equated as metaphors of the four maras, the obstacle-causing devils, and the four basic evils that bind the gods, heroes, humans, and animals to existence, and make them fall back again and again into the cycle of rebirths (samsara). The gradual visualization of Hevajra and experiential union with him serves to attain liberation in a single lifetime. The spiritual program that is given to the meditator here requires, because of its complexity, many kinds of support. In the upper area of the meditation thangka, besides the blue-colored primordial Buddha Vajradhara (top center), numerous patriarchs and spiritual teachers of the Sakya tradition, to which this teaching practice belongs, are gathered. These provide the spiritual precepts from the Dharma. In the central area, at the height of the central display, yidams of various kinds are depicted. There appear the deity Guhyasamaya (yab-yum), with three heads; below, the nine-headed Yamantaka (yab-yum); below, the red-colored Naro-Dakini, and further down, the blue-colored Vajrapani (?), with four arms, holding vajra and a vajra rope in the two upper hands. Opposite is the three-faced Cakrasamvara (yab-yum); below is the red-colored dakini Kurukulla with four arms; below follows a red-colored deity in union with an equally red-colored dakini; then further below is the red-colored elephant-headed Hindu deity Ganesha. All of these deities grant the meditator succor and support on his spiritual path with their specific wisdom and powers. In the lower part of the painting a group of five initiation Dakinis (center) and numerous powerful protectors are lined up, which also grant protection and help to the meditator.
Important German private collection, assembled in the 1970s and 80s, mostly acquired at Schoettle Ostasiatica, Stuttgart
Minor wear and rest., silk mounting partly faded, traces of age