Twenty-three Deity Nairatma Mandala (c. 1375): Art, History and Details

Twenty-three Deity Nairatma Mandala (c. 1375) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A mandala is a diagram of a realm of enlightened beings. This mandala depicts the palace of Nairatma, who dances in the center. The outermost ring contains depictions of eight cremation grounds, where corpses burn, and dogs and vultures feed on human remains. Buddhist practitioners spend time in cremation grounds in order to overcome fear of death and attachment to their physical bodies. A practitioner can then reach the splendid realm of eternal bliss in the center. Accomplished teachers guide a practitioner’s meditations through the cremation grounds and every section of the mandala.

Object facts

• Title: Twenty-three Deity Nairatma Mandala
• Date: c. 1375
• Culture: Central Tibet
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on cloth
• Dimensions: Overall: 82.5 x 72.4 cm (32 1/2 x 28 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Tibetan Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1993.4

A detail from the museum

Virupa is depicted twice, always pointing to arrest the sun with his raised left hand. He sits among the lineage masters along the top edge, and is also depicted in the topmost segment of the ring of cremation grounds, being served a cup of liquor.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• “1993 Annual Report.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (July 1994): 143–218.
• Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 53 no. 05, May/June 2013, pp. 4–5.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.