A PAUBHA DEPICTING GUHYAKALI NEPAL, CIRCA 16TH CENTURY |

the blue multi-armed goddess in pratyalidha against a halo of flames, with kartrika and kapala in her principal hands, standing on a form of Shiva lying on a base with a black dog reclining on a lotus flower, deities and crowned heads beneath, charnel grounds and her multi-armed entourage around the shrine, the upper register cut, with Vinadhara Shiva and Parvati below flanked by Bhairava and Srikantha Kamakala Himalayan Art Resources item no. 18308.

This rare paubha depicts the shakti of Pashupatinatha, the patron deity of the Hindus of Nepal, see Pratapaditya Pal, Art Of the Himalayas: Treasures from Nepal and Tibet, New York, 1991, p. 80-2, and compare a 1600-50 Guhyakali in the Zimmerman Collection, ibid, p. 81. The goddess’s temple is located across the Bagmati River from Pashupatinath in Kathmandu.