Mahasiddha Kanhapa (Primary Title)
thangka (Object Name)
Unknown (Artist)
In the Mahayana, full attainment of enlightenment could require innumerable lifetimes of practice, even for bodhisattvas. Consequently, innovative teachings known as tantras emerged, each promising to speed the process drastically. The swiftness and power of tantric ritual techniques is reflected in the name of the new movement: the Vajrayana or Lightning Vehicle. With the Vajrayana’s ascendancy, a new class of spiritual experts also came to prominence. Eccentrics called mahasiddhas, they specialized in unorthodox practices that often transgressed conventional social norms. One such spiritual maverick appears in this painting. Holding an antelope horn and skull cup, Kanhapa of the East, an Indian yogi of the seventh to eighth century, sits on a leopard skin, with a tiger curled before him and a female attendant to his left.
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