Complete Description
La déesse debout sur un couple enlacé, décapitée et tenant sa propre tête dans une main et un sabre dans l’autre, flanquée d’autres divinités, sur fond ovale peint à l’or, dans des bords rouges et jaunes, le revers inscrit de trois lignes en devanagari, manques et fragilités.
Dim. : 18,2 x 16 (peinture) ; 20,5 x 19 (page)
Among the most striking forms of the goddess in the Hindu tradition, Chinnamasta occupies a singular place. She belongs to the group of the Mahavidyas, major figures in Tantric worship.
This iconography, often associated with a couple in union as a symbol of creation, embodies a fundamental tension between destruction and regeneration. Chinnamasta represents a rupture, a moment in which the flow of life is interrupted without ceasing altogether, thus illustrating a cyclical vision of the world in which annihilation and creation are inseparably intertwined.
See other depictions of Chinnamasta painted in Rajasthan: Sotheby’s, New York, 21 March 2023, lot 203; Christie’s, London, 12 June 2018, lot 78; and Bonhams, London, 25 October 2021, lot 298.
