In this finely preserved and exquisitely rendered paubha (Nepalese painting), the central blue figure of Chakrasamvara — symbolising the blissful state of perfect wisdom — stands in passionate embrace with his red-bodied consort Vajravarahi. They are encircled by a fiery red aureole, with numerous cremation grounds and the deities who preside over them depicted in the background. The upper and lower registers depict other forms of Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi, alongside numerous other deities.
Tantric or esoteric Buddhist art is deeply symbolic, with each emblem taking on new meaning as it is interpreted to the practitioner. Conceptually, this dramatic image of Chakrasamvara and his consort Vajravarahi embodies the union of Wisdom and Means. The four faces of Chakrasamvara and their four colours stand for the four elements (earth, water, fire and air); the three eyes on each face indicate that he perceives the three worlds (earth, heaven and hell) and is aware of the three times (past, present and future). To signify the great compassion that keeps him in this world to aid living beings, with his right foot he tramples a red figure of Kalaratri — the extreme of nirvana (final extinction) — and with his left foot he tramples Bhairava, who represents samsara (the illusion of this world). The garland of fifty severed heads stands for the purity of the fifty consonants and vowels of the Sanskrit alphabet. As the Chakrasamvara Tantra declares: “Thus he is flamboyant, heroic, unlovely, wild, fearful, terrible, compassionate, dignified and serene. Such are the nine modes of his dance.”
