A THANGKA DEPICTING PANJARNATA MAHAKALA Western Tibet, circa 1500

Himalayan Art Resources item no. 13073.

Very good overall condition. Some wear to pigment and minor surface abrasions overall. Minor intervention and suppression of minor losses. With pinholes along outer edges from previous textile mount. Exhibited in a temporary frame.
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In this fine example of Sakya lineage painting from the early 16th Century, Panjarnata Mahakala, the lord of the Pavilion, stands at center holding a kartrika in his right hand and a kapala in the left, with a large ghandi stick across his arms held at the bends of the elbows.

Panjarnata Mahakala stands surrounded by his retinue of devas Bhutadamara Vajrapani at left with Zangtri Mahakala below, and devis Ekajati at right with Shri Devi below. The upper register of the painting depicts Sakya lineage holders including Sachen Kunga NyingPo, with lineage progenitor Vajradhara at the far left. 

The wrathful figure Panjarnata Mahakala, derived from the Vajrapanjara Tantra, is the special protector of of the Hevajra tantras. He was also considered the special protector of Nalanda University in Bihar, as is evidenced by the wooden ghandi across his forearms, the same kind of wooden gong which would have been used to call monastic inhabitants to assembly.  

The composition and structural elements of the current work are discernible in other circa 1400 thangkas depicting Panjarnata Mahakala. Compare the halo of garudas and charnel ground animals above the head of Mahakala; the delicate red filigree of flames described in the background; the central figure holding a kartrika and kapala in the right and left hands; the distinctive elongated physiognomy of the supine figure beneath the feet of Mahakala; the positioning of the four retinue figure of Bhutadamara Vajrapani, Zangtri Mahakala, Ekajati and Shri Devi at the right and left of the central figure; and the color palette and crenelated edges of the lotus throne with three similar thangkas depicting Panjarnata Mahakala in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, acc. 1994-148-638; in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, acc. no. M.82.6.4; and also in the Musée Guimet in Paris, see Amy Heller, Tibetan Art, Milan, 1999, p. 149, pl. 86.