Cakrasamvara is the most frequently encountered of the great tutelary deities that are at the centre of the Vajrayana Buddhist spiritual life of the Newars. In the Nepalese portrayal the god Samvara is shown with four heads and twelve arms, embracing his consort Vajravarahi, who is shown with one leg planted next to his and the other clasping his body in amorous embrace. The embrace is sensual and active; the couple gaze intently, slightly fiercely, upon one another’s faces. In their ecstatic swaying, they trample upon the prostrate, writhing forms of Kalaratri and Bhairava.

As is always the case with tantric images of this type, the pair are dressed in the terrifying accoutrements of the tantric initiate; garlands of heads, crowns of skulls, and the skins of animals adorn them. Samvara’s piled-up hair with its crescent moon is reminiscent of the coiffure of the great Hindu god Shiva.

Newar portrayals of Samvara are among the most lively and entrancing of their entire repertoire. In other cultures with such tantric traditions, gods with multiple arms are often shown with each hand ranked after the preceding one in a static array. But the Newar sculptor varied the position and the gesture of each hand and arm, as we see here, to show a truly moving and dancing figure. The multiple hands are so skillfully delineated that they seem entirely natural. And as is always the case with these masters of metal work, the hands are refined and delicate and the features of the faces finely and expressively delineated. The upward-straining figure of the skeletal Kali is particularly striking with its almost severe expression.

Each gesture and attribute has a specific meaning; in reference to another image they were described as follows: ‘The first pair of hands holds, right and left, a vajra scepter and a bell, symbolizing the union of skillful means and wisdom. The second pair rends the elephant of illusion and stretches its hide out like a cape. The drum in the third right hand [missing] shows that Samvara’s voice “resounds joyously”. The third left hand holds the khatvanga staff that represents “the blissful Thought of Enlightenment”. His fourth right hand brandishes the axe [missing] that “cuts off birth and death at the roots”. The skull bowl of blood in his fourth left hand shows that he has “cut away discrimination between existence and non-existence”. His fifth right hand wields the vajra chopper that “cuts off the six defects, pride and the rest”. The vajra lasso in his fifth left hand binds beings to wisdom from life to life. The trident [missing] in his sixth right hand signals that he has “overcome the evil of the threefold world”. The severed head of the god Brahma dangles from his sixth left hand, showing that Samvara “avoids all illusion”.’1

This example is rare in the elaboration of the base on which the god is enthroned. Here a square lotus base is supported by lions at the four corners, and decorated at the front with a panel bearing a dharmacakra. This type of base is more commonly encountered in depictions of three-dimensional mandalas and yantras.

1 R. Kohn in Rhie & Thurman, 1991, p. 279. The inner quotations are excerpts from the tantric text Clarifying the Order of the Rite (sadhana) of the Circle of the Mandala of SriCakrasamvara.