Iconographic Details: (figure & attributes/Text based) - Male - One face, two arms - Black colour - Wrathful appearance - Holding a knife & skullcup, gandhi staff - Wrathful Ornaments - Upright posture, slightly crouching, sun disc, lotus seat - Circle of fire - Best Examples - Masterworks
Non-iconographic Details: (stylistic interpretation/art history) - Body proportions - Iconometric measurements - Design of ornaments - Design & colour of garments - Angle of the head - Circle of fire - Outer halo type & colour - Others...
'The Great Vajra Mahakala, blazing, with one face, two hands, in the right a curved knife and left a skullcup filled with blood, held above and below the heart. Held across the middle of the two arms is the 'Gandhi of Emanation;' with three eyes, bared fangs, yellow hair flowing upward, a crown of five dry human skulls and a necklace of fifty fresh, blood-dripping. [He is] adorned with six bone ornaments and snakes, with a lower garment of tiger skin, flowing with pennants and streamers of various silks; dwarfish and thick, in a posture standing above a corpse.' (Konchog Lhundrub, 1497-1557).
[70] Shri Mahakala. 'Shri Vajra Mahakala with one face and two hands. The right [hand] holds a curved knife. The left holds a skullcup at the heart. Having bared fangs and three eyes. A crown of five dry human skulls and a necklace of fifty fresh [heads]. Adorned with the six bone ornaments and snakes. Wearing a lower garment of tiger skin. [and having] a very charismatic, short and stocky body. Standing in the middle of a flaming mountain of fire.' (Edited version of the Bari Gyatsa. Konchog Lhundrub, 1497-1557).
Jeff Watt 7-2023
(The images below are only a selection of examples from the links above).