Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c75.s3.77

v2.c75.s3.77

Jambhala—may be left out and let us concentrate on Mahākāla, whose epithet of ‘pañcabuddhakrīṭinam’ signifies his sires alright. ‘He may have one face with two, four, or six arms, or eight faces with sixteen arms. He is one of the many terrible deities described in the Sādhanamālā with ornaments of snakes, canine teeth, protruding belly and garments of tiger-skin’. Images of Mahākāla abound in Nepal, the birth-place of Tāntric-Buddhist images. In variation of his arms, he has four varieties two-armed, four-armed, six-armed and sixteenarmed; in the last of which Mahākāla should be surrounded by seven goddesses, three in the three cardinal points, (fourth being occupied by himself) and the other four in the four corners (see details in I. B. I. p. 121-222.