Tantric Art: Finding Enlightenment though Ecstasy    

At first glance, Tantric Deities Hevajra and Nairatmya in Ritual Embrace (Yah-Yum) is a chaotic vortex of entwined bodies, satellite limbs, and ornate details which overwhelm the eye with visual information. Furthermore, its monochromatic color scheme and repetitive visual motifs do little to alleviate the sense of confusion viewers may encounter upon trying to distinguish the divide between the principle male and female figures. This apparent maximalism is no accident or anomaly to the school of art and thought which Tantric Deities Hevajra and Nairatmya belongs to, however. The initial enigma presented by this sculpture includes its unique blend of dynamism and passivity, artistic maximalism and symbolic essence. In order to uncover the meaning of such mysteries, some insight into the culture from which the sculpture arose, the specific religious tradition it serves, and the significance of its formal qualities would be required. Essentially, Tantric Deities Hevajra and Nairatmya may be better understood in conjunction with the particular philosophy of Tantric Buddhism, to which “love” is the essence of attaining salvation, rather than orthodox Buddhism’s emphasis on austerity and self-denial.

            Tantric Deities Hevajra and Nairatmya in Ritual Embrace was discovered in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, where Buddhism first took root in the 1st century, mixing with Tantric Hinduism[1]. Created circa 1600, Tantric Deities Hevajra and Nairatmya is a gilt bronze sculpture with pigments. It is of modest proportions, of nineteen and three-quarters inches in height, thirteen inches in width, and seven inches in depth, which suggests that it was not made for monumental purposes, but rather for personal devotion at the more intimate level of a devotee and votive image relationship. In fact, Tantric Deities Hevajra and Nairatmya belongs to the type of devotional sculpture called yidam, whose purpose is to incite meditation in devotees[2].

The deities depicted in the sculpture are Hevajra, the principle male, and Nairatmya, the principle female. Locked in an amorous embrace, the two are so closely entwined that it is difficult at first to determine the exact places where their individual bodies begin and end. While Hevajra is a Heruka, a wrathful deity who “represents the Buddha nature in its dynamic aspect of active compassion, in the act of breaking through the bonds of the ego in the process of realizing the freedom of Buddhahood”[3], his consort Nairatmya symbolizes intuitive wisdom and sunyata, the ultimate “void of self” which indicates enlightened bliss[4]. Together, they create yab-yum, literally “father-mother”, an icon of spiritual sex[5]. The union of the two deities is the central, gravitational force to which all the sculpture’s radiating forms and dynamic spiral force is anchored, and it is meant to symbolize divine creation, the cosmic order, and balance in the heart of the devotee who, with the realization of a universal oversoul which draws on the perfection union of all worldly things, should attain nirvana. Metaphorically speaking, the apparent chaos of Hevajra’s wrathful stance and cobra-shaped extension of arms represents the uncertainty of the tangible world, and Nairatmya’s ability to weigh him down in passive reflection—as evidenced in the way they gaze into each other’s eyes—represents the natural order to be found in enlightened hearts. In addition to this power couple complex of Hevajra and Nairatmya, Hevajra is depicted treading upon two Mara figures, demonic dwarves which lie prostrate beneath his warrior pose. According to principles of hierarchy of scale, these demons are smaller and thus of lesser significance than either of the deities.

            In terms of Tantric Deities Hevajra and Nairatmya’s formal qualities and crafting process, it is actually quite typical of the esoteric art of Tantra which has been passed down from individual teachers to students for generations since the time of the ancient fertility-centric religions of India. In terms of its art, at least, Tantra has remained true to orthodoxy, typically specializing in standard archetypes of object matter, form, and style. Since Tantra has historically been a study isolated within family groups and secret cults, several characteristics of tantric art were simply imitated by pupils of their masters for centuries[6].  For example, nearly all tantric art is small scale, and used for private meditation. Prescribed colors used for emotive, rather than artistic effect were also characteristic of many tantric works—while the male Heruka is often painted red to symbolize his terrible wrath and active compassion, his female consort is often painted blue to symbolize her selflessness and wisdom. Also, the figural aspects of tantric art are often idealized according to standard expectations, besides certain canons of longstanding Indian tradition such as voluptuous form and fluid gesture. To an extent, tantric figures are all “geometric ideals of beauty”[7], which serve as only iconic representations of age-old philosophies regarding male and female unity, bliss and void. They are less realistic depictions of the human form than metaphorical objects of meditation. As Nepalese artists traveled from monastery to monastery, producing works under monastic supervision, they spread dogmatic tenets of tantric art throughout the Himalayan cultures and eventually to Tibet, where Tantra came to full fruition between the 14^th and 17^th centuries[8].

In further conjunction with the standards of Nepalese tantric art, Tantric Deities Hevajra and Nairatmya’s medium of gilt bronze is highly common in devotional sculptures of that region, which is significant precisely because of Nepal’s natural abundance of less valuable materials such as clay and wood. Often, what was then considered “bronze” may have instead been an amalgamation of the “five precious substances”: gold, silver, copper, zinc, and iron[9]. Many of the symbolic qualities of Tantric Deities Hevajra and Nairatmya are thus standardized right down to the deities’ clothing, poses, and expressions. This archetypal method of creating tantric devotional objects may explain the reason why there are so many depictions of Hevajra and Nairatmya in yab-yum which utilize the same poses: Hevajra holding out his sixteen arms, his right leg outstretched, his left angled in a powerful warrior stance, and Nairatmya suspended within his arms, her left leg paralleling Hevajra’s right, her right leg wrapped around his waist. Also, it may strike viewers that tantric sculptures are incredibly expressive, forceful, and maximalist compared to the more iconic Buddhist works of the Gandhara, Mathura, and Gupta periods, which are generally imbued with a more intuitive power, and crafted along subtler lines. This difference is partly attributed to the cultural temperament of Nepal and Tibet, there tantric art truly flourished after spreading from India, but it may also be because of Tantra’s unique connection to Mahayana Buddhism[10]. In the tradition of Mahayana beliefs, Tantric Buddhism deals in the realization of enlightenment within single lifetimes. Meditating on tantric sculptures, like the experience of hiking through Borobudur, is meant to help the devotee gain an immediate sense of nirvana. Thus Tantra, like Mahayana Buddhism, also places great importance in the role of bodhisattvas, enlightened beings who delay the process of achieving Buddhahood in order to help others navigate the sea of misery[11]. It is appropriate then to depict deities such as Hevajra and Nairatmya clothed and ornamented in worldly extravagance.

Finally, after all other parts of the crafting process are finished and before tantric devotional sculptures are consecrated in religious ceremonies, the details of faces are painted. According to traditional Indian principles of darsan, the eyes of deities are the finishing touches. After consecration, mantras and other sacred materials may be inserted in the completed sculpture through its negative spaces or hollow base in order to infuse the object with power[12]. The sculpture may then be dressed with silks and offered food.

Tantric Deities Hevajra and Nairatmya is representative of a mature phase in tantric sculpture, characteristics of which were first seen in Indian temple reliefs of amorous couples[13]. As Buddhism swept through Indian, spreading to surrounding countries and staking firm spheres of influence in Nepal and Tibet especially, general trends in philosophy as well as art swung toward refined asceticism and elevated Brahminist schools of thought. Tantra, as a cult of ecstasy and worldly experience, took an esoteric stance on the scene of Buddhist practice as a result of this movement toward austerity, yet thrived in reaction to it. In fact, “19^th century Tantrikas stated emphatically that they believed many of the miseries of their poor India to be caused by the world-hatred which traditional Brahmin philosophies had instilled into the majority of the population”[14]. Thus the greatest difference between orthodox Buddhism and Tantric Buddhism is that according to tantric philosophy, repeated attempts to escape from the dwelling on the proverbial sea of misery will never result in the achievement of enlightenment so long as the individual does not learn to navigate the seas of samsara, to understand the world through experience.  

The tantric tradition has been inherent to Indian religious life as early as the ancient fertility religions which emphasized folk deities of abundance and procreation. With the rise of Buddhism as a universal religion, traditional Hindu characteristics of art melded with the new faith—a la the yakshis of the Great Stupa—and Tantric Buddhism developed as an esoteric sect on the basis of this particular amalgamation. Likewise, its art is a sort of hybrid product. Tantrikas often expanded the traditional Buddhist subject matter of universal harmony within the individual to depict harmony between polar forces: male and female, active and passive, exterior strength and interior resilience. Today, Tantra is a living cult which retains its predominance in Tibet in the form of Vajrayana Buddhism[15]. Its practice is very much reliant upon prescribed meditations and rituals, which often incorporate as their focus some kind of visual guide such as a mandala or devotional sculpture, yidam. The significance of art to Tantra is thus functional as well as monumental—tantric art is essential to tantric practice.

At the heart of tantric art, then, is an inherent glorification of love. While orthodox Buddhist sects proclaimed the elevation of the individual spirit above all temptations and desires, Tantra stresses fulfillment of enlightenment through union with people, with lovers, and by extent with the natural order of the cosmos. As with Tantric Deities Hevajra and Nairatmya in Ritual Embrace, the “energetic, world-producing male principle is absorbed in the passive, all-embracing female principle, the Universal Void”, reflecting the union which takes place in the mind of the devotee—the realization of which leads ultimately to enlightenment.

Works Cited

“Hevajra, Buddhist Deity.” IndianetZone. 2 June 2010. Web. <http://www.indianetzone.com/>.

“Nairatmya, Tantric Buddhism.” IndianetZone. 2 Oct. 2010. Web.

<http://www.indianetzone.com/>.

Olson, Eleanor. Tantric Buddhist Art. New York: China House Gallery, 1974. Print.

Rawson, Philip S. The Art of Tantra. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society., 1973. Print.

[1] Olson, Eleanor. Tantric Buddhist Art. (New York: China House Gallery, 1974), 14-16.

[2] Olson 25.

[3] Olson 25.

[4] “Nairatmya, Tantric Buddhism.” IndianetZone. Web.

[5] Olson 9.

[6] Rawson, Philip S. The Art of Tantra. (Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1973), 16.

[7] Rawson 16.

[8] Olson 17.

[9] Olson 12

[10] Rawson 15

[11] “Hevajra, Buddhist Deity.” IndianetZone. Web.

[12] Olson 12.

[13] Rawson 34.

[14] Rawson 26.

[15] Rawson 25.