Vajrayogini, the ‘Khechari of Naropa,’ is the principal female deity of the Chakrasamvara Tantra, and the form of the present figure was realized by the eleventh-century Indian mahasiddha, Naropa and passed onto subsequent lineages. Khechara Vajrayogini became particularly important in the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, and after the seventeenth-century, became central to Gelug practices as well. She is a fully-enlightened being who epitomizes the practice of tantra, the expedient Buddhist path to enlightenment, which entails destruction of human ego and the triumph over the duality of conventional and ultimate truth. These principles are captured in the skulls that would have once adorned her naked body and the blood she transforms to amrita. Although the separately-cast implements and adornments, including curved knife, skull cup, khatvanga, skull garland and crown are all missing, the present figure, with its dynamic pose, embodies the triumph of enlightenment.
In the process of conserving the bronze, the consecration materials within the base were studied and preserved in a display box for further research. The figure was consecrated with various semi-precious stones and shells, including turquoise, coral, and cowries, small fragments of wood, bits of blue textile stamped with Tibetan-style seals, circular pieces of paper printed with Buddhist emblems and characters, and perhaps most interestingly, a Nepalese coin from the reign of Jaya Vishnu Malla, who ruled the kingdom of Patan from 1729-1745. The coin is dated Nepal samvat 861, corresponding to 1741, which indicates the work was consecrated no earlier than the 1740s, and only thirty years before the end of the Malla period in Nepal. The presence of both a Nepalese coin as well as textiles stamped with Tibetan seals means the present bronze could have been cast in either Nepal or Tibet, although the somewhat more Tibetan style and the greater popularity of the deity in Tibet makes it more likely the work was a Tibetan commission.
Compare the current example with a non-gilt example, also missing her adornments, in the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art, illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 65470, as well as a non-gilt example sold at Christie’s Paris, 12 June 2012, lot 369, and a Tibeto-Chinese example from the Elizabeth and Willard Clark Collection sold at Bonhams New York,19 March 2018, lot 3088.
