Himalayan Art Resources

Buddhist Deity: Vajra Nairatmya Main Page

Nairatmya Masterworks

Subjects, Topics & Types:
- Description (below)
- Outline Page
- Hevajra Main Page
- Source Texts
- Confusions: Vajrayogini, Five Family Dakinis
- Others...

Video: Vajra Nairatmya

Forms & Context:
1. Solitary
2. Two Armed, Fifteen Deity Mandala
3. Four Armed, Twenty-three Deity Mandala
4. Consort to Hevajra
5. Thirteen Deity Mandala, Padampa Sanggye
6. Depicted in Lineage Sets (Seated)
- Others...

Vajra Nairatmya (Tib.: dor je dag me ma [rdo rje bdag med ma]. English: the Selfless One, or Egoless One): from the Hevajra and Samputa Tantras - both early and important texts of the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism. Nairatmya is a meditational deity and partner to Hevajra. There are many different forms and combinations of forms for the two deities, alone, or as a couple in ecstatic embrace.

"Vajra Nairatma, [with] a body black in colour, one face and two hands. The right [hand] holds aloft a curved knife and the left a skullcup to the heart, and carrying a katvanga [in the bend of] the elbow. Having three eyes and bared fangs. Yellow hair bristling upwards. A crown of five dry human skulls and a necklace of fifty. Adorned with the five ornaments of bone. Wearing a lower garment of tiger skin. Standing on a corpse seat in a dancing manner with the left leg extended in a half [vajrasana] posture." (Konchog Lhundrub, 1497-1557).

Database Search: All Images | Paintings | Sculpture | Mandalas

Jeff Watt 7-2002 [updated 5-2017, 1-2020]


Source Texts:

Toh 381. Emergence from Sampuṭa. ཡང་དག་པར་སྦྱོར་བ། · yang dag par sbyor ba. Sampuṭodbhavaḥ.

Toh 417. The Hevajra Tantra. ཀྱེའི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རྒྱུད། · kye'i rdo rje'i rgyud/hevajratantra.

Toh 418. The Tantra of Hevajra, He Who Affords Protection Through Nets of Ḍākinīs. ཀྱེའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་དྲ་བའི་སྡོམ་པའི་རྒྱུད། · kye'i rdo rje mkha' 'gro ma dra ba'i sdom pa'i rgyud.

Toh 419. The Tantra of the Vajra Cage. རྡོ་རྗེ་གུར་གྱི་རྒྱུད། · rdo rje gur gyi rgyud/ ḍākinīvajrapañjaratantra.