The Mahasiddha (Great Adept) Virupa (Ugly One, 837-909) is generally believed to have born in northeastern India in the present-day state of Tripura. An alternative literary tradition places his birth in Maharashtra. He studied tantra at the renowned Buddhist monastery, Somapura Mahavihara, in Paharpur, present-day Bangladesh. Unsatisfied with his spiritual progress, he became an eccentric itinerant monk teaching tantra, performing magical feats (siddhis) such as stopping the sun, and converting non-Buddhists.
Virupa is depicted here as a fierce yogi seated with his legs crossed at the ankles on an antelope skin on a double lotus base. His ascetic’s long hair (jata) is coiled around a human bone on the top of his head. He is copiously ornamented with spiral round earrings (kundala) typical of the Tantric yogins, an unusual tiara of flowers signifying his initiation by mystical female "sky-goers" (Dakinis), a jeweled cross-chest belt (channavira) symbolic of his spiritual power, a long floral garland (vanamala), a dhoti with floral designs, and multiple necklaces, armlets, bracelets, and anklets. His hands are held in the teaching gesture of Turning the Wheel of the Law (dharmachakra mudra or dharmachakra-pravartana mudra).
A Tibetan inscription around the base reads, Om swasti! I take refuge in the lamas and the glorious Virvapa, who are as one, and whose nature combines together body, speech, thought, wisdom, and action. Through the act of setting up [this image] by the monk Namkha Shenyen and his uncle, for the sake of the dead may the two [donors] and all beings swiftly attain Buddhahood. (Translation by H. E. Richardson.)
See Himalayan Art Resources, no. 85781, https://www.himalayanart.org/items/85781