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The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c20.s12: XII. Four Ḍākinī Group

The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sādhanamālā and Other Cognate Tāntric Texts of Rituals c20.s12

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XII. Four Ḍākinī Group

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Usually in this group of goddesses are included the names of Ḍākinī Lāmā, Khaṇḍarohā and Rupiṇī who are widely mentioned in the Tāntric works of rituals. In the Sambara Maṇḍala of the Niṣpannayogāvalī their names are mentioned as companion deities of Sambara. Again, in the Ṣaṭcakravartī Maṇḍala they are mentioned as companion deities. But their forms are found described only in the Sādhanamālā. According to this authority they are all alike in appearance holding identical symbols. Only in colour they differ. In the Vajravārāhī Sādhana (No. 217) they are described as follows:

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“Ḍākinī-Lāmā-Khaṇḍarohā-Rupiṇīḥ kṛṣṇa-śyāma-rakta-gaurāḥ. Etā ekavaktrāḥ caturbhujā vāme kapālakhaṭvāṅgakapālahastāḥ dakṣiṇe ḍamarukartrikāḥ trinetrā muktakeśā nagnā ālīḍhāsanasamsthitā pañcamudrāvibhūṣitā bhāvayet.” Sādhanamālā p. 425

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“Ḍākinī, Lāmā, Khaṇḍarohā and Rūpiṇī are of blue, green, red and white colour respectively. They are one-faced and four-armed and carry in their left hands the Kapāla-marked Khaṭvāṅga and the Kapāla, and in the two right the Ḍamaru and the knife. They are three-eyed, have dishevelled hair, stand in the Ālīḍha attitude and are decked in the five bone ornaments. Thus they are to be meditated upon”.

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Two statuettes of Ḍākinī occur in the Chinese collection ¹. The names of three others do not find mention in China. In Tibet, Lāmā-ḍākinī belongs to this group, and a remarkable and perhaps unique statuette of the goddess from the W.B. Whitney collection in the Freer Gallery of Art is illustrated in the Iconogrphy of Tibetan Lamaism ².

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¹ Clark : TLP, II, p. 96, 110

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Fig. 217 illustrates the Chinese statuette of Ḍākinī, and Fig. 218 is a Nepalese picture of Lāmā Ḍākinī.

Cites (2)