A Dakini
Unknown Artist
c. 1100
Medium
bronze
Dimensions
h. 15.2 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Accession Number
1985.92.2
About this artwork
An extremely rare bronze of a tantric Buddhist deity depicts the trampling of the personifications the of the afflictions that keep beings cycling around the world of samsara, moving from one unhappy birth, death, and rebirth to another. This female deity appears to hold a skull cup in her left hand, with a mace in the crook of her elbow, and she grasps an unclear object that may be a flaying knife in her upraised right hand.