A four-armed image of Mahakala

Summary

Debala Mitra’s article presents a rare four-armed stone image of Mahākāla preserved in the Asutosh Museum of Calcutta University. Mahākāla is a fierce form of the Buddhist bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara who is often assimilated to Śiva. The article begins by noting that Mahākāla is generally depicted in Tibet and Nepal with two arms, holding a skull cup and chopper, but the image discussed here has four arms, making it unusualfile:///home/oai/share/563035_compressed-5-113.pdf#:~:text=44%20A%20four,varicty%2C%20according%20to%20which%20%E0%A4%98%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%9F. The deity is shown standing, with one face and three eyes, framed by matted locks. His upper hands hold a drum and a rosary or perhaps a trident and a damaru, while the lower hands hold a skull cup and chopper. The attributes suggest a synthesis of Buddhist and Śaiva iconography: the skull cup and chopper are typical of tantric Buddhist deities, whereas the drum and rosary recall Śiva. The author examines stylistic features such as the heavy jewellery, the stance and the treatment of the face, and tentatively dates the sculpture to the Pāla-Sena period (eighth–twelfth centuries), a time when tantric Buddhism flourished in eastern India. She compares the figure with similar images from Tibet and Nepal but notes that four-armed Mahākāla figures are extremely rare there as well. The article discusses textual references to Mahākāla in the Nispannayogavali and Sadhanamala and notes that some texts prescribe two-armed forms while others mention multi-armed forms used in magical rites. The four-armed image could represent a local Bengali adaptation of these tantric traditions. The author also explores the possible religious context, suggesting that the sculpture may have been worshipped both by Buddhist monks and by Saivites, highlighting the porous boundary between the two traditions in medieval Bengal. The article thus underscores the hybrid nature of eastern Indian iconography and calls for further research into regional variations of tantric deities. It concludes that the Asutosh Museum image is significant both for its rarity and for what it reveals about the syncretism of Buddhism and Saivism during the Pāla-Sena era.