Vajradhara, Nairatmya, and mahasiddhas Virupa and Kanha, c. 1450
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Vajradhara, Nairatmya, and mahasiddhas Virupa and Kanha

c. 1450

Medium
Gum tempera and gold on cotton
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
Framed: 74.8 x 59.8 cm (29 7/16 x 23 9/16 in.); Overall: 57.5 x 50.2 cm (22 5/8 x 19 3/4 in.)
Culture
Central Tibet, Ngor monastery
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

The first in a series depicting the masters who transmitted the teachings on how to reach enlightenment, this painting begins at the upper left with the dark blue Vajradhara, who represents the essence of all Buddhas. The female enlightened being Nairatmya is seated at the upper right. She transmitted the teachings to Virupa, the brown-skinned Indian yogi at the lower left, in a vision; his disciple Kanha is at the lower right.