Goddess Kurukulla

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Kurukulla is the Buddhist counterpart of Kamadeva, the god of love and his consort Rati. She confers success in the tantric rites of enchanting men, women, ministers, and even kings. She is invoked with her mantra, Om Kurukulle hum hrih svaha, before her image ten thousand times, she touches the heart of the beloved who is surely won over. The goddess Kurukulla as an aspect of Red Tara is invoked for controlling activities of subjugating, magnetizing and attracting. She is extremely seductive – he red color and subjugating flower-attributes emphasize her more mundane activity of enchanting through the bewitching power of sexual desire and love. The eroticism of her symbolism is further enhanced through the imagery described in her sadhana. For attracting a man, the flower-hook and red utpala arrow are visualized as piercing his heart and for attracting a woman these attributes are visualized as penetrating her vagina. Thus piercing activities of Kurukulla’s flower-attributes reveal the sexual magnetism of this seductive goddess.

But unlike Kamadeva she does not enslave beings to lust, rather by energizing their liberating insight into the nature of reality, she captivates their passion and turns them toward the realization of the Dharma. According to Alice Getty Kurukulla is also the goddess of wealth and follows in the suite of the god of wealth, Kubera, but is not his consort.

Buddhist texts mention different forms of Kurukulla both in peaceful and wrathful appearance. Here she is dancing in ardhaparyankasana on a prostrate body. She has one head with a crown of five skulls, three eyes and a ferocious expression. Her hair is erect in loose. She has four hands; her principal hands hold the attributes of a flower-bow (pushpadhanus) and a flower-arrow (pushpasara); by the right hand she pulls the bowstring and arrow. Her upper right hand holds a flowery arrow and second left hand a flower-noose (pushpapasha). Moreover she wears a long flowing scarf, a long garland of severed human heads, earrings, armlets, bracelets and anklets. Her hips are covered with tiger skin. There is an arch-shaped aureole of wisdom fire behind her body.

There are more ferocious manifestations of Kurukulla with six and eight arms, dancing on corpses. Moreover she is also depicted in a mandala with twelve female divinities. The iconographical text Sadhanmala mentions many forms of Kurukulla; in one form she is seated in vajraparyankasana and has eight arms. With the normal hands she makes the vajra-hum-kara mudra, while the others hold a bow and an arrow, a noose, an utpala and so on. She is peaceful in appearance and seated in center of an eight-petalled lotus, on each petal of which is a female divinity.

The present manifestation of goddess Kurukulla is suitable for her sadhana and practices.

This description by Dr. Shailendra Kumar Verma, Ph.D. His doctorate thesis being on the "Emergence and Evolution of the Buddha Image (from its inception to 8th century A.D)."

How are Nepalese copper statues made?

Nepalese statues and sculptures are best known for their unique small religious figures and ritual paraphernalia for over two thousand years. These are mainly cast in copper alloy. Nepal draws influences from the artistic styles of Buddhism and Hinduism, and therefore the sculptors of the country specialize in making the icons of both these religions. Over the years, Nepalese sculptures evolved into their own distinctive iconography. Some characteristic features of these sculptures that differ from other pieces are exaggerated physical postures, youthful and sensual features, languid eyes, wider faces having serene expressions, and ornate flourishes. The Buddhist deity icons of Nepal have tremendous demand in countries such as China and Tibet for ritual purposes in their temples and monasteries.

Nepalese statues and sculptures have a high copper content and therefore develop a slightly reddish patina on the surface as they age. However, the most unique feature of Nepalese copper statues is their decorative detailing. The pieces are heavily gilded and sometimes inlaid with semi-precious stones. This embellishment protects them from getting tarnished. The traditional lost-wax method for casting Nepalese copper statues remains the most practiced technique in Nepal for many centuries. This process involves many steps and requires skilled artists.

The first step in lost-wax sculpting is to make a wax replica of the desired Buddhist deity to be cast in copper. This replica is created by hand and therefore needs excellent artistic skills otherwise fine features will be lacking.

Once the wax replica is made, it is then coated with a special mixture of clay with a brush. This layer of clay is hardened when left to dry. A small hole is made on the base of the wax mould so that the wax flows away when it is heated.

At this stage, a hollow mould in the shape of the deity is obtained.

This is the time to pour liquid copper into the hollow mould which is then allowed to cool and harden inside a container of cold water. When the liquid metal has hardened, the mould is removed and the statue within is revealed.

The artist works on the details of the statue using various tools. It is then polished to get a shiny and lustrous surface.

Now comes the most important part of Nepalese art which is gold gilding. This is done by the traditional fire gilding method. A mixture of mercury and 18K gold is applied on the surface of the statue and heat is applied using a flame torch. The result is that mercury evaporates along with impurities, leaving a pure 24K gold finish.

The lost-wax method of sculpting is the most preferred technique

for artists to cast a metallic statue having intricate details. Since Nepalese copper sculptures require extraneous effort for giving a majestic look by adding special embellishments, it takes several weeks to complete one masterpiece. A 24K gold gilded copper sculpture retains its brilliant luster for many years and appears as like before. Nepalese sculptures continue to remain one of the finest specimens of the art of the East that have a strong aesthetic appeal that other sculptures cannot match.