The god is caracterized very much like his predecessor the Yaksa-deity of Great Peace in frame 122. The chief differences are: a flame-edged halo; only four arms; a necklace of severed heads; and a building-block-like pedestal, rising out of water. The left hands hold: 1, Hour-glass-shaped drum 2. Shell-like cup or ladle The right hands hold: 1. Trident with impaled head 2. Noose On his right he is attended by two black-skinned, curly-headed demons with weapons, and two young girls with double-tuft coiffures and flowing Song-style robes. Mahā Kāla's skin is white; his hair, dhotī, and flames are red; the skulls are bluish grey. Since there is clearly an intimate relationship between the female and male icons of frames 123 and 124, it seems likely that the Nāgini and her attendants stand for Lake Dian, perhaps accompanied by the streams that feed it. The two frames together would thus refer to the Nanzhao Eastern Capital.
大聖大黑天神。 The Great Holy God Mahā Kāla |
A queen Nāgini. A high goldsmith's crown, backed by three horned serpent heads, and a heavy necklace. A voluminous Chinese-style costume, the outer robe enriched by strewn floral motifs; up-turning shoes. With a small, single-serpent-hooded maid and a boy-like figure with shaven head on which she has placed her hand. She stands on a double coiled mat, resting on a rock with sharply indented contours, rising out of water. Behind her, emerging from the water, are four Nāgini attendants, dressed as she is but more simply, each with a single serpent's-head hood. From her left to her right they hold: a sword, a bag (of money ?) ; and a jar containing luminous jewels (?). On her left and right, respectively, are cock- and snake-headed figures, with human hands and dress and scaly lower bodies emerging from the water. The cock figure holds a fruit (? left) and halberd (right) ; the snake figure a basket with fruits (? both hands). We have met the cock- and snake-headed beings before in frames 13 and 14, in pictures that were also set against a body of water, celebrating two Nāgarājas and their courts. A common body of water all around, and intertwining coils of supernatural vapor, link this female deity with the male in the next frame. The Nāgini's skin is dark golden. Strong white accents in the snake hoods, and the small boy. The cock's head is red, and the robed snake is silvery grey. The "supernatural vapor" is grey smoke.
大聖福德龍女。 the Great Holy Nāgini of Prosperity and Virtue |
A fierce standing deity, single-headed, six-armed, and two-legged, standing on a lotus base on ground. Details suggest a being of the most frightful sort: skulls in the headdress and wound around the torso, snakes twining in the place of jewelry, a tiger's-skin waistecloth, a hairy face with fangs. The general impression, however, suits the meeting of opposites implied in the name, There is only a small monochrome halo instead of flames; overhead is the canopy usually held over benign beings; and the pose is static. The left hands hold: 1. Staff with ornamental top 2. Bowl 3. Rosary The right hands hold: 1. Mace 2. Trident with entwined snakes 3. Staff The upper surface of the pedestal contains the diagram of a seven-star constellation, on which the god's feet are planted. This is apparently the southern constellation called in Chinese Xing 星, and in Sanskrit Maghā. Its relevance is discussed under frame 124. On his right side the god is framed by a group of five demon-warrior attendants and an erect goat. On his left stand three ladies in hybrid attire; the first, the only one clearly visible, has the girdled skirt, jewelry, and coiffure of a minor Bodhisattva, with the closely fitted bodice frequently given goddesses in the Far East to lessen their traditional semi-nudity. At the lower right corner of the frame is a small child with a jar containing jevels. The Yaksa has a grey-blue body with red hair. Strong white accents; the goat is black.
大安藥叉神。 the Yaksa-god of Great Peace |