Unknown
Mahakala17th-18th century

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Unknown
Title: Mahakala
Place Made: Central Tibet (by a Newar artist)
Date Made: 17th-18th century
Medium: Repoussé copper alloy
Dimensions: 4 3/4 x 3 3/4 x 1 3/4 in. (12.07 x 9.53 x 4.45 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Daniel Ostroff
Accession Number: M.91.190
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: South and Southeast Asian Art
Curatorial Notes: Mahakala (Sanskrit: Great Time/Death), who is known in Tibetan as nag po chen po (Great Black One). Tibetan liturgical texts claim that there are as many as seventy-five forms of Mahakala (the Great Black One) and describe him as being the deep black color of the storm clouds that will darken the sky at the end of time. He is most often depicted with a crown of skulls, snarling mouth, and three bulging eyes enabling him to see the past, present, and future. Mahakala’s frightening face and spiritual anger are thought to overcome obstacles and enemies of Buddhism.

In this two-armed portrayal, he holds the flaying-knifer or chopper (kartrika) and the skull-cup (kapala). He wears two serpent necklaces and a long garland of severed skulls (mundamala). In the quintessential mode of Tibetan representation, Mahakala is squatting in meditation on and rising from the body of a ghost (pretasanastham utthitham). The image is exalted by a flaming aureola (prabhavali). See also M.71.110.3 and M.79.184.

Related Unframed

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Unknown
Title: Mahakala
Place Made: Central Tibet (by a Newar artist)
Date Made: 17th-18th century
Medium: Repoussé copper alloy
Dimensions: 4 3/4 x 3 3/4 x 1 3/4 in. (12.07 x 9.53 x 4.45 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Daniel Ostroff
Accession Number: M.91.190
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: South and Southeast Asian Art
Curatorial Notes: Mahakala (Sanskrit: Great Time/Death), who is known in Tibetan as nag po chen po (Great Black One). Tibetan liturgical texts claim that there are as many as seventy-five forms of Mahakala (the Great Black One) and describe him as being the deep black color of the storm clouds that will darken the sky at the end of time. He is most often depicted with a crown of skulls, snarling mouth, and three bulging eyes enabling him to see the past, present, and future. Mahakala’s frightening face and spiritual anger are thought to overcome obstacles and enemies of Buddhism.

In this two-armed portrayal, he holds the flaying-knifer or chopper (kartrika) and the skull-cup (kapala). He wears two serpent necklaces and a long garland of severed skulls (mundamala). In the quintessential mode of Tibetan representation, Mahakala is squatting in meditation on and rising from the body of a ghost (pretasanastham utthitham). The image is exalted by a flaming aureola (prabhavali). See also M.71.110.3 and M.79.184.