Plated in gold this silver artifact glows with gold’s lustre. With strangely conceived figures of Mahakala rendered using turquoise for the face on one side, and lapis lazuli stone on the other, and beads of coral, turquoise, and lapis lazuli stone, and of course the basic metal, for hands and other parts, against a background covered in entirety with floral arabesques of fine mesh, this amulet, a rare piece of art, reveals unique beauty and great splendour. Despite that it seeks protective dimensions directly from the divine entities like Mahakala and Tara, it is not completely bereft of symbolic breadth. Three turquoise and coral beads on one side of the pipe on the top are symbolical of ‘Tri-Ratna’ – the Buddha, the Law, and the Commune, and five on the other, of five Buddhas – Virochana, Akshobhya, Amitabha, Ratnasambhava and Amoghasiddhi.
In Mahayana Buddhism Mahakala is one of the most prominent guardian deities of both, the Buddhist Doctrine and sanctuary. At his earliest Mahakala appears as the protective deity at Nalanda. His role as protector reveals with greater emphasis subsequently at Alchi in Ladakh. Most of the monasteries and shrines of Mahayana Buddhism have the image of Mahakala, as at Alchi, over the first entrance-door. Blue-complexioned and dwarfish-bodied Mahakala wears tiger-skin and a garland of severed human heads as also a snake. He has reddish hair crowned with six skulls, large protruding fangs and a ferocious look. The Mahakala form on the amulet box here is represented only partially, the face and the arms. It however includes his basic ferocious look, obnoxious fangs, awe-inspiring rounded eyes, raised hair and a course of skull-like looking motifs on the forehead’s upper line. More than the adherence to the physical appearance the artifact seeks in the image the deity’s protective umbrella and benevolence.
In the Mahayana Buddhism, Tara, the universal Saviouress, has been perceived as protecting her devotees from all calamities, attacks of wild animals, snakes and vipers, floods and cyclones. Several sources contend that her very name Tara means ‘one who helps wade across’. ‘Tri’, the root term of Tara, itself means ‘swim across’. One of the theories of her origin relates to the prayer of the people of the village Tar situated on the right bank of Cholana lake lying on the western slope of Mount Meru. Not able to cross the lake and hence earn livelihood the people of Tar always wished some power enabled them do it. One day, they saw on the adjacent hill a green bodied goddess with twenty-one others ready to help them right then and always. They named her Tara, the Saviouress of Tar. All her names popular in Tibet, China, Korea and Japan express this same meaning. Thus, whoever carries Tara’s icon in an amulet box or otherwise is protected against all adversities.
The green-bodied Tara carries a blue lotus and stands on another. She sometimes has four arms but usually the normal two, one holding a lotus, while the other, held in varada; she also has a third eye. She has a benign countenance and a smile on her lips. Red Tara or Kurukulla is known by her red complexion. She sometimes also carries a lotus, but a red lotus is invariably her seat. Her right hand is represented as held in abhaya, though the left carries sometimes a lotus and sometimes an arrow made of red lotus buds. Though too miniaturized their icons, most of these iconographic standards have been observed in conceiving the images of Green and Red Taras in this amulet box.
In the centre on the inner sides of both lids manifests the ‘Mantra’ in its graphic form, an innovation of Mahayana Buddhism and one of its most sacred symbols. Flanking it on sides is the Buddhist mantra ‘Om Mane Padme Hum’. Not just casually, the sacred mantra has been incorporated as an essential part of the concept and composition. The term ‘Man’ meaning ‘mind’, and ‘tra’ meaning ‘to guide’ or ‘protect’, the mantra is the most potent instrument that ‘protects the mind’; obviously, unless the mind is protected, no ritual exercise would succeed. Indeed, it is the mantra that invests a worship rite with the grace of the deity and endows the ritual artifact with the essence of what is sacred. ‘Om Mane Padme Hum’, the Tibetan mantra meaning ‘Hail! To the Jewel in the Lotus’, emphasising that the lotus – the human heart, is not without the Jewel – Divine Spark, has been incorporated with the artifact to suggest that the Divine Spark is within one and he has just to kindle it.
This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a number of books.
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