Shakya Panjarnata Mahakala Thanka

Shakya Legden Chaturbhuja Panjarnata Mahakala

Mahakala is the main protector of the Sakya tradition and a guardian deity in one of the main tantric practices, called the Hevajra Tantra. This form—Panjarnata, or “Great Black Lord of the Tent”—has a corpulent body and a large head with a menacing countenance. He holds his main attribute, a wooden staff, balancing it on his forearms. He wears a crown of skulls and a garland of severed heads. The black background of the painting was made using ashes from a funeral pyre mixed with the pigment.

When the great Tibetan Translator Nyen Lotsawa received the Manjuvajra Guhyasamaja (also known as the Jnanapada Lineage) empowerment from the dakini Risula, she also bestowed the initiation of the Mahakala (Chaturmukha) in the special form according to the Guhyasamaja Tantra. At this time she gave him as a servant a dark skinned Brahman. When Nyen Lotsawa and the Brahman reached Nepal the servant changed appearance and took on the form of a monk, an appearance more conducive for travelling in Tibet. After the passing of Nyen Lotsawa the monk remained with Lama Nam Ka’upa and then later with Sachen Kunga Nyingpo.

Brahmarupa Mahakala is none other than Chaturmukha Mahakala of the Guhyasamaja Tantra. In his wrathful appearance he is black in colour with four faces and four hands, surrounded by the four dakinis. In the Sakya School it is inappropriate to show the wrathful form to anyone who has not received the initiation. For this reason the iconographic tradition arose for painting Chaturmukha in the form of the Brahman servant of Nyen Lotsawa.

Size without Brocade: 18 inches by 24 inches