Provenance:
Rossi & Rossi, London, 1994
European Private Collection
Devotees regard the five Raksha as worldly protectors, each goddess having a specific role in assuaging fear and guarding against harm from dangerous animals, disease, and natural disasters. These five folios comprise:
White Mahapratisara, the principal Raksha goddess, with eight arms and four faces, seated in the meditation posture (vajraparyankasana) on a lotus pedestal, a red aureole with white border behind, and attendants either side including Indra and nagaraja on the left.
Blue Mahasahasrapramardini with eight arms and four wrathful faces, her blue face with bloodshot eyes, seated in a vigorous posture with the forefinger of her left hand extended in a threatening gesture (tarjani mudra), snakes in her hair and around her arms and neck, an aureole of fire behind, and with attendants either side (including Indra on the left).
Yellow Mahamayuri with three faces and eight arms, a lotus in one of her left hands supporting a vase topped by a visvavajra—the emblem of her parent Buddha Amoghasiddhi—with attendants including two rishi in awe on the left and nagaraja on the right.
Red Mahamantranusarini with three faces and twelve arms, and with a white aureole behind and attendants either side.
Green Mahasitavati with three faces and six arms and attendants at her side.
The ends of each folio with floral motifs on a black background and numbered on the right, some illegible or missing, the text in four sections divided by panels of geometric and floral designs around binding holes.
Compare the elegant movement of goddesses and attendants on a mid-twelfth-century pair of Nepalese manuscript covers in the Bodleian Library, see W. Zwalf, ed., Buddhism: Art and Faith, London, 1985, p. 130, fig. 171; also compare the deities on a palm leaf manuscript in the Cambridge University Library dated 1148, see Pratapaditya Pal and Julia Meech-Pekarik, Buddhist Book Illuminations, Ravi Kumar Publishers, 1988, p. 115, fig. 39.
Devotees regard the five Raksha as worldly protectors, each goddess having a specific role in assuaging fear and guarding against harm from dangerous animals, disease, and natural disasters.
