2016-2021
Gold plated bronze
19 x 18 x 17 cm



A sculpture of one of three Goddesses that form the Trika.

Textual Source:
“Like blazing fire, wearing a garland of skulls, with three glowing eyes, she sits with trident and skull-staff in her hands on the shoulders of Sadāśiva, the ‘Great Transcended’. Her tongue flickers in and out like lightning. She is gross-bodied and adorned with great serpents. Her mouth yawns wide and at its corners are terrible fangs. Ferocious, with her brows knitted in rage, wearing a sacrd thread in the form of a huge snake, adorned with a string of human corpses round her neck, with the severed hands of a human corpse for lotuses to deck her ears, her voice like thunder of the clouds at the world’s end, she seems to swallow space itself.”
~ Siddhayogeśvarimata 6/20-26b

Acknowledgments:
The Trika Goddesses, created by synthesising translations and analysis by Alexis Sanderson in The Visualization of the Deities of the Trika (Paris: Éditions du CNRS, 1990). The six attributes suggested in Tantrāloka 327c-328b [Sanderson, Visualization… p67] have been included – skull-bowl, trident, skull-staff, the gesture of generosity, the gesture of protection, and the jar of nectar. Given the degree of autonomy suggested to the practitioner by Abhinavgupta in these verses, the severed head has been added for Parāparā and the drum, flaying knife, and blazing sword for Aparā, giving both deity forms six arms each. Parā has been visualised with the gesture of generosity, the rosary, the book, the pen, the gesture of Consciousness, and the trident. This collection of six has been arrived at by combining into one form all the attributes that span the different textual descriptions of Parā documented in Table 2.11 of [Sanderson, Visualization… p42]. The lotuses of twelve, eight and three petals have been included as the thrones of the Goddesses, following [Sanderson, Visualization… p53]. For Parāparā and Aparā, additional features such as the ornaments, jewellery, facial expressions, and dispositions were determined based on Siddhayogeśvarimata 6/20-26b [Sanderson, Visualization… p51]. The sentiments embodied by the three Goddesses was based on Mālinīvijayottaratantra 8/72b-74b [Sanderson, Visualization… p55]. The iconometry and iconography of the deity forms follow [Christoph Cüppers, Leonard van der Kuijp, Ulrich Pagel, Handbook of Tibetan Iconography (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2012)]. The position of the Bhairava consorts was inspired by two bronze sculptures of Kālī and Śiva in union, Plate 110 and 111 in [Phillip Rawson, The Art of Tantra (London: Thames and Hudson, 1973) p125].