- Title
- The Dakini Nairatmya
- Date Made
- 16th century
- Medium
- Gilt brass inlaid with turquoise; paint
- Dimensions
- 9 1/4 x 5 3/4 x 4 1/2 in. (23.5 x 14.61 x 11.43 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.70.1.4
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Nairatmya (Selfless One) is a Buddhist Dakini (Female Sky-goer), which is a class of enticing demigoddesses. She is the consort of Hevajra (see M.85.115.3, and M.81.6). She is usually portrayed in union with Hevajra or as a dancing figure (see M.85.221). Here, however, she sits alone in the relaxed posture (lalita asana) on a corpse atop a double lotus base. She has a third eye, an ascetic’s piled hair painted red and crowned by a thunderbolt (vajra), a tiara, and profuse jewelry. She wears an antelope skin around her waist. Atypically, her nipples are in the form of a perforated circle similar to the pericarp of a lotus. Her right hand holds a flaying knife (kartika) and her left holds a skullcup (kapala).
A comparable 17th-century sculpture of Nairatmya is in the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, New York (C2018.3.1).
- Selected Bibliography
- Pal, Pratapaditya. Art of Tibet. Los Angeles; Berkeley, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; University of California Press, 1983.
- Reedy, Chandra L. Himalayan Bronzes: Technology, Style and Choices. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1997.
- Rhie, Marylin M. and Robert A.F. Thurman. Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. New York: Tibet House, 1991.
- Pal, Pratapaditya. The Art of Tibet. New York: The Asia Society, Inc., 1969.
- Fisher, Robert E. Art of Tibet. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
- Pal, Pratapaditya. Art of Tibet. Expanded edition. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1990.
- Beguin, Gilles. Dieux et Demons de l'Himalaya: Art du Bouddhisme Lamaique. Paris: Grand Palais, 1977.
