Himalayan Art Resources

Item: Indian Adept (siddha) - (multiple figures)

རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་གྲུབ་ཆེན། 印度大成就者
(item no. 73421)
Origin Location Eastern Tibet
Date Range 1800 - 1899
Lineages Buddhist
Material Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton
Collection Private
Notes about the Central Figure

Classification: Person

Interpretation / Description

Eighty-four Mahasiddha of the Abhayadatta System based on the depictions documented by Jonang Taranata (1575-1635) as commissioned and painted as murals in the Ganden Puntsogling Monastery, Tibet. (See Abhayadatta Outline Page).

This painting belongs to an eleven painting set and depicts eight Indian adepts, siddhas, from early in the list following the Abhayadatta system: number 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. The composition is the 3nd painting (L1) in the set and placed immediately to the proper left of the central painting.

Numbered List:
13. Tantipa, seated at a loom (upper left).
14. Chamaripa, dark in colour (upper center).
15. Khadgapa, holding a sword, flying in the sky (top right).
16. Nagarjuna, with a hood of writhing snakes (middle left).
17. Krishnacharya, riding atop a zombie (middle right).
18. Aryadeva, wearing the robes of a monk (bottom left).
19. Taganapa, seated under a tree (bottom center)
20. Naropa, wearing a human skin and holding a skullcup (bottom right).

Jeff Watt 6-2009

Secondary Images
Related Items
Thematic Sets
Indian Adept Main Page (Mahasiddha)
Collection: Private 4 (Painting)
Painting Set: Indian Adepts (84) - Palpung Composition
Collection: Private 4 (Painting 19th Century)
Collection: Private 4 (84 Mahasiddhas)
Subject: Greyscale - Figurative & General Composition