A Japanese gilt-bronze katsuma [cross with pestles with three-prongs], Kamakura-Muromachi period, 14th-15th century

Along with the ritual bell known as ghanta, vajra were the most important ritual implements of Vajrayana Buddhism. The vajra symbolised the unbreakable Absolute, and though there are hardly any extant from Buddhist India, examples are found in Indonesia, Nepal, Tibet and Japan. When paired with the ghanta bell, the vajra represents compassion or the masculine ‘skill’ as means for salvation; the bell on the other hand marked ‘supreme knowledge’ and was perceived as feminine. In combination they amounted to a unity of ecoefficiencies necessary for salvation when held in both right and left hands respectively for ritual movement and are commonly seen as attributes for numerous deities.

The form of the katsuma, sometimes referred to as a cross-shaped vajra, is thought to have originated from a projectile weapon used in ancient India. The nave is chased and engraved with eight chrysanthemum-form petals and nine circular stylised stamen. Its cross-shape terminating at each end with three-pronged pestles emerging from a floral pedestal, it would have been placed at the four corners of a mandala during Buddhistic ceremony.