Nepal, Hayagriva (3)

Circa 8th century, Nepal, Hayagriva, gilt copper, 40,5 cm, at the gTsug Lakhang in Lhasa, inventory nº 285, photo and details on Ulrich von Schroeder

A rare and early metal image of Hayagriva (identified by the horse’s head on his flaming chignon) depicted as an attendant: he leans on a danda staff and raises a hand (vandana mudra) towards the main deity he accompanies, usually Tara or Avalokiteshvara. A billowing scarf forms a nimbus behind his head and he is adorned with snakes, including one to hold his short dhoti in place and another worn as a sacred thread.

18th century, Nepal, Hayagriva, bronze with cold gold and pigments, private collection, photo on De Baecque .

Hayagriva, identified by the three neighing horses’s heads in his flaming hair, in his ‘Secret Accomplishment’ form. He has three heads, each with three eyes, six arms, six or eight legs, and wears a tiger skin around his waist, a human hide and an elephant skin on his back, a garland of severed heads, five-skull crowns, bone jewellery, a sacred cord made of human hair. One of his  hands makes a wrathful gesture, the others hold a spear, a lasso of intestine, a vajra sceptre, a ritual staff, a sword, all missing in this case.

Nepal, Hayagriva (2)

Late 13th – early 14th century, Nepal or Tibet, Hayagriva, gilt copper alloy with pigments and stones, 17,5 cm,  private collection, photo on Bonhams

Usually an attendant to Avalokiteshvara (in Nepal), Black Hayagriva has one head with three eyes, bared fangs, flaming orange hair, a green horse’s head on his own (sometimes 3), two hands in which he wields a sword and holds a hook or an axe (missing here), two legs in the fighting pose (alidhasana). He wears a tiger skin loin cloth and is adorned with snakes.

Circa 15th century, Nepal, Hayagriva, wood, photo on Huntington Archive , at the Bhaktapur Wood Carving Museum (Nepal).

Some of the most remarkable sculptures from the Malla period are made of polychrome wood. This Red Hayagriva, with three eyes and a horse’s head on his own, is seated at ease on a lotus, his right hand making the gesture of salutation, the other holding an attribute now missing. He wears a tiger skin and is adorned with princely jewellery and a serpentine sacred thread. 

18th century, Nepal, Hayagriva, painted wood, private collection, photo Peaceful Wind on asianart.com

As a standing attendant lifting a hand towards the main deity and holding a danda staff in the other.

Circa 17th century, Nepal, Hayagriva, copper alloy with gilding, private collection, Asian Art lot 120, 5th December 2017, Koller.

A singular image of this dharmapala with a yaksha body, some wings, one head with a garuda beak, and two hands. He has a horse’s head on top of his own and wears the usual tiger skin loin cloth, elephant hide across his back, snake adornments and garland of severed heads. There is a vajra-handled elephant goad in his right hand.

There may be a relation with the “three combined wrathful ones” of which we saw an example in the form of Vajrapani with three horses’s heads in his headdress and a garuda standing on top, (see also Himalayan Art Resources), in which case, he may have held a vajra sceptre in his left hand.

Nepal, Hayagriva

Unlabelled (circa 10th century? Nepal, Hayagriva, gilt copper alloy with cold gold and pigment), at the Potala in Lhasa (Tibet), published in The Potala, Holy Palace in the Snow Land, photo on on HAR. Update 13/12/22: 11th-12th century, Nepalese school in Tibet, 19,9 cm, (Buddhist Sculptures In Tibet Volume Two, p. 944 pl 223A, Ulrich von Schroeder), Potala Collection, Lima Lhakhang, inventory nº 899.

This handsome character with a horse’s head on his own stands on a victim atop a lotus pedestal, clad in a tiger skin loin cloth and adorned with snakes, his left hand making a threatening gesture normally associated with a lasso wound around the raised forefinger. He probably held a club in his right hand.

8th century, Nepal, Hayagriva, copper with traces of gilding, private collection, photo on Rossi & Rossi

Hayagriva, with the head of a horse on top of his own, is half kneeling and half crouching on a Licchavi-style double-lotus base. He is  adorned with snake jewellery and sacred thread, and wears a tiger skin dhoti with the head of the animal over his left knee. The attributes are missing. In Tibet, he often holds a stick and makes a symbolical gesture with the other hand. In Nepal, he is more likely to hold a club and a lotus.