South Asia: Pala Sculpture and Painting
Artist: unknown
Title: Hevajra and Nairatma in a lotus mandala
Material: copper alloy
Site:
Current Location:
Period/Date: Ca. 11th century?
Iconography/Iconology: Previous examples of Hevajra and his prajna,
Nairatma, have been discussed. However, this lotus, in which the couple
appears, is one of very few three dimensional mandalas that have survived
from the Pala period. Essentially, the lotus would have been closed, and
stayed closed, until such time during an initiation when the teacher would
have opened it, revealing the interior. The attendant deities on the lotus
petals are part of the interior of the Hevajra mandala. The loops on either
side probably held a cap or closing device which would have kept the petals
pulled together in a form that would have closely resembled a lotus bud.
Stylistic Comments: Mandalas are usually developed on flat surfaces
as complex diagrams. The vaste majority of them were done as powdered colors.
The mandalas were then destroyed when the ceremony was over. Such mandalas
as the one shown here were incorporated into large, powdered mandalas, which
would have contained the entire rest of the deities of the entourage.
