Good morning.

Today I will discuss the iconography of the Brahminical deities in the Netra

Tantra, a Svacchanda Bhairava Tantra that Alexis Sanderson has argued was likely written in

Kashmir in around the ninth century. The main text contains many dualistic elements and the

eleventh century commentator Kṣemarāja read the text through the non-dualistic lens of his

teacher Abhinavagupta. In this paper I focus primarily on the root text though have referred to

Kṣemarāja’s gloss as needed. The Netra Tantra comes to us in a handful of Nepalese manuscripts

and an edited edition as part of the Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies. I have relied almost

entirely on the edited edition for this work though a critical edition is long overdue.

The principle deity of the Netra Tantra is Amṛteśa, the Lord of Immortality or Non-Death.

Worship of Amṛteśa brings about worldly enjoyments, such as the cessation of pain and the end

of disease, as well as salvation. Supreme and free from disease, the text describes Amṛteśa as

fully enumerated, constant, eternal, and unmovable. He has no form or color and is

omnipresent. He delights in all āgamas, pervades all mantras, and grants all siddhis. He is like a

transparent crystal sewn onto a colored thread, always reflected with its color. He is found in all

āgamas and gives his benefits to all sādhakas. He is Śiva, Sadāśiva, Bhairava, Tumburu, Soma,

and Sūrya. His form is formlessness.

In his highest iconographic form, Amṛteśa appears as Mṛtyujit or Mṛtyñjaya, the conqueror of

death. This is the form that appears on the introductory slide. Here Mṛtyujit is accompanied by

his consort Amṛta-lakṣmī, who sits on his lap and shares many of his attributes. Several

examples of bronze figures of Mṛtyujit and Amṛtalakṣmī from Kashmir have been identified

and conform to the depiction of the deities as given in the Netra Tantra. Sanderson1 has

identified three representations of Mrtyujit and his consort Amṛtalakṣmī from the Himalayan

1 Sanderson, 2004, p. 240.

region. These small bronzes, which were most likely used in shrine room pūjās,2 are all assigned

to the tenth or eleventh century and some, such as that in the second slide, have been previously

labeled Umā-Maheśvara or Viṣṇu and Lakṣmī. Gudrun Bühnemann has added to this a fourth

bronze sculpture from the eleventh century also identified as Umā-Maheśvara or Umā-

Maheśvara as Kumbheśvara. 3 The characteristics of these images are shared in amongst the

icons of Nepal's Royal Bath, also shown here, which dates to approximately the seventeenth

century. Like the bronzes, this image closely corresponds to portrayals of the deity as found in

Netra Tantra, especially at 3.17-23cd and 18.63-69ab. As we can see from these portions of the

text, [new slide] Mṛtyujit and Amṛta-lakṣmī sit in the middle of the soma maṇḍala, are compared

to the moon, cow’s milk, jasmine, mountain snow, are adorned with white clothing, garlands,

and pearls. They both sit in the baddha padma-āsana with hands that form the mudrās of wish-

granting and protection.

Though manuscripts of the Netra Tantra made their way to Nepal as early as the thirteenth

century,4 Bühnemann demonstrates that the images of Mṛtyujit5 do not begin to appear until the

seventeenth century in Nepal. Therefore, she argues that the Tusā Hiti sculpture is more likely

based on depictions of the deity from manuals that follow the Netra's tradition rather than from

the Netra Tantra itself.6 She also theorizes that the iconographic form might have come from an

artist's model-book. This statue, and a presumed second statue at Mohancok Hiti in

2 Bühnemann, personal email correspondence, November 2017.

3Gudrun Bühnemann, 2009, "The Identification of a Sculpture of Mṛtuṃjaya/Amṛteśa and
Amṛtalakṣmī in the 'Royal Bath' in Patan (Nepal)," in Prajñādhara: Essays of Asian Art, History,
Epigraphy and Culture in Honour if Gouriswar Bhattacharya. Volume I, Eds. Gerd J.R. Mevissen and
Arundhati Banerji, New Delhi: Kaveri Books p. 110.
4 Sanderson, 2004, p. 241.
5Bühnemann, 2009, uses the spelling Mṛtyuṃjaya for the deity. I have changed the spelling to
conform to that used within this thesis though have retained the name she uses for the deity
despite myself using Mṛtyujit throughout this text. This is, of course, the same deity.
6 Bühnemann, 2009, p. 110.
Kathmandu,7 are thus far the only images of Mṛtyuji found in Nepal that appear to correspond

to the description of the deity in the Netra Tantra.

Bühnemann traces a very different iconographical representation of Mṛtyujit outside of Kashmir

and the Kathmandu Valley. Found in Odisha, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and many other

regions in modern-day India, this Mṛtyujit bathes himself in the nectar that flows from pots that

he holds above his own head or is showered from moon discs. According to Bühnemann, these

images likely come from accounts in the twelfth century Pra-pañca-sāra and begin to appear in

the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries.

Returning to the Mṛtyujit of the Netra Tantra, we find a deity whom one can worship in various

forms using the mantra oṃ juṃ saḥ. Thus far, no appearances of these forms have been identified

within the physical record. However, within the text the deities described take on some of the

characteristics of Mṛtyujit, thus allowing the practitioner to meditate on deities during

calendrical worship without neglecting their praise for Amṛteśa. What remains consistent in the

iconographic descriptions are the repeated characteristics that indicate a Śaiva affiliation for

visualization. For example, many of the deities wear a rud-rākṣa. This indicates their devotion to

and being forms of Śiva.

After the Netra Tantra describes Mṛtyujit, it moves on to detail the five-faced Sadāśiva. Like

Mṛtyujit, Sadāśiva is compared to the moon, mountain snow, jasmine, and crystal. He sits in the

baddha padma-āsana, atop a white lotus, holds a water jar and holds the rud-rākṣa.

7The fountain at Mohancok Hiti is located in a private section of the Hanūmāṇdhokā Palace
and is inaccessible. Photographs indicate that many of the seventy-two extant sculptures at Tusā
Hiti have counterparts at Mohancok Hiti. Bühnemann, 2009, p. 107. Both palaces sustained
damage during a major earthquake on 25 April, 2015 and the condition of the Tusā or
Mohancok Hitis sites remains unclear.
As Sanderson notes,8 the objects Sadāśiva holds here are unique to the Kashmirian tradition,

with a more typical collection being a trident, axe, sword, thunderbolt, fire, a snake, noose, bell,

and the mudrā of protection.9 Other deities described in the Netra Tantra also deviate somewhat

from their more familiar forms. [next slide]

The Netra Tantra describes Bhairava and his companion, Aghoreśī, with more attention than

Sadāśiva. Bhairava appears in various colors. His frightening and screaming mouth is matched

by an assortment of dangerous and deathly ornaments. Like many of the goddesses, Bhairavī

has the same ornamentation and weaponry as her male counterpart. In addition, Bhairavī holds

the medicinal śata-vārī (Asparagus racemosus), a plant grown in the Himalayan region and used

in Āyurveda to delay aging, improve mental faculties, and help fight disease.10

Like Sadāśiva, Bhairava has five faces. He rides a lion that stands on a corpse and wears a snake

garland. He holds various objects in his hands -- a skull, sword, khaṭvāṅga, etc. -- The last of his

ten hands form the mudrās of wish-granting and protection. The text instructs the practitioner to

meditate on him in times of peace and prosperity as well as to suppress sickness and vice, and

to protect cows, brahmins, and men. Again, we find a deity who is compared to snow, jasmine,

the moon, pearls, and quartz though he can also appear red like the sun or a lotus, or yellow

like orpiment. Aghoreśī appears with him, red with erect hair, five faces, each with three eyes.

Her hands end in curved talons and she wears a garland of severed heads.

8 Sanderson, 2004, p. 274.

9 Davis, 2000, p. 117.
10Sukh Dev, 2001, "Ancient-Modern Concordance in Ayurvedic Plants: Some Examples." in
Development of Plant-Based Medicines: Conservation, Efficacy and Safety, ed Praveen K. Saxena,
Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media, p. 55-56.
This is a very different depiction of Bhairavī than that found in the ninth century Kashmiri

Śāradā Tilaka, in which she has a single, white face with three eyes, and holds a book, a rosary,

and a jar of amṛta.11 Bhairava and Aghoreśī are surrounded by various devīs and dūtis. Though

here I focus on the depictions of male gods, I have begun a comparative study of the devīs, dūtis,

and yoginīs who appear in the Netra Tantra. Like the companion goddesses, many of these

secondary feminine figures bear the characteristics of the deities they surround.

Of the twelve deities in the Netra Tantra, which I have charted here with some of their main

characteristics, Nārāyana and Sūrya have two forms each; Viṣṇu has eleven total -- including

Nārāyana and a separate deity identified by the name Viṣṇu who one may also visualize as a

boy surrounded by beautiful naked women, Nara-siṃha, Varāha, Vāmana, Kapila, an honorable

man, unadorned, or without parts; all without Lakṣmī.

As we see here, both Tumburu and Rudra take the form of Sadāśiva. Within he mantramārga

textual tradition, five streams of revelation emit from the mouths of Sadāśiva. From Īśāna, the

upward facing top head, comes the Siddhānta scriptures. The Vāma Tantras emerge from the

North facing, mild Vāma face. The Vāma Tantra focus on Tumburu and the goddesses who

surround him. The Dakṣiṇa Tantras focus on Bhairava and emerge from the Southern Aghora

face. Finally, the Gāruḍa Tantras from Tatpuruṣa's Eastern-facing mouth, and the Bhūta Tantras

from Sad-yojāta’s face at the west.12 Sanderson notes that the works of the Vāma Tantras made

some impact in Kashmir but do not appear to have taken hold in the same manner as texts of

the Dakṣiṇa Tantra stream.13 Both the Vāma Tantras and Dakṣiṇa Tantras focus on goddesses, a

characteristic that is reinforced in the Netra Tantra's description of Tumburu.

11 Kinsley, 1998, p. 168.

12 Alexis Sanderson, 2013, "The Śaiva Literature," Journal of Indological Studies. No. 25, p. 32.
13 Sanderson, 2013, p. 50.
Viśva-karman, the divine architect, has a form is very vague and does not appear with either the

mudrās of protection and wish-granting or a māla/rudrakṣa.

While I would like to devote more time to all the deities and their attendants, time permits me

to only discuss a few of Amṛteśa’s form. I will end with Sūrya, an important deity in Kashmiri

temple practice. Here Sūrya appears low in the hierarchy of deities. He has two forms, only one

of which uses the mudrās. A ninth century sculpture of Sūrya, housed in the Sri Pratap Singh

Museum in Srinagar, depicts Sūrya seated atop a chariot with seven horses.14 As we can see, this

statue is heavily damaged and we do not know how many heads, eyes, or arms the statue

original had. Sūrya ruins of an eighth century sun temple in Kashmir, about fifty kilometers

from Srinagar, remain understudied. Historical descriptions by early archaeologists of Kashmiri

sun temples fail to describe statuary in detail, though clearly some remained at that time.15

Modern studies show that those sculptures that do remain are worn down and difficult to

identify.16 This mean the Netra Tantra offers a unique illustration of Sūrya as imagined in

medieval Kashmir. The size and location of this temple, which appears to have been in use until

the fifteenth century, demonstrates its importance during the medieval period. Four of six

temples that Kalhaṇa cites in the Rājataraṅgiṇī, described by Stein and others, appear to have

been smaller than the Martand sun temple.17 Of these other temples, all ascribed to the reign of

14 Siudmak, 2013, p. 409.

15 Walter R. Lawrence, 1895, The Valley of Kashmír, London: Henry Frowde,
p. 170-172; James Fergusson, 1899, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture. Volume I, New
York: Dodd, Mead & Company, p. 285-291.
16 Siudmak, 2013, p. 409-410.
17
Ronald Inden, 2000, "Imperial Purāṇas: Kashmir as Vaiṣṇava Center of the World," in
Querying the Medieval: Texts and the History of Practices in South Asia, Ronald Inden, Jonathan
Walters, and Daud Ali. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 85-86.
Lalitāditya (c. 725-761/2),18 three are Buddhist and three Vaiṣṇava.19 Kalhaṇa praises Lalitāditya

for building these and many other shrines, including those dedicated to Śiva and Jain saints.20

Unlike the previous deities, the Netra Tantra's description of Sūrya does not report a retinue of

goddesses. Instead, the eight planets, Nak-ṣatras, and Lokapālas21 surround Sūrya, each on its

own lotus. The Nak-ṣatras vary in number.22 This image differs greatly from an eighth century

brass Kashmiri figure of Sūrya currently housed at the Cleveland Museum of Art, bottom

right.23 The Cleveland figure has one head, two arms, and holds a lotus flowers in both hands.

He has two eyes and an inlaid sacred mark between his eyebrows that has been lost, his face is

adorned with a mustache, and he wears a crown decorated with flowers. Most strikingly

different from the Sūrya described in the Netra Tantra is that the bronze figure stands rather than

sits mounted on a chariot or horse. Lee notes that the long, belted robe and boots are similar in

style to those worn by Buddha statues from Afghanistan. The boots of the Cleveland image are

identical in style to those found on a seventh century marble statue of Sūrya in the National

Museum of Afghanistan.24 Like the description in the Netra Tantra, the Kabul Sūrya rides a

chariot, though he has only four attendants.25 The Kabul Sūrya is also notable for its European

18 Sanderson, 2004, p. 255n60.

19 Inden, 2000, p. 85.
20 RT 4.181-211.
21 Indra, Agni, Yama, Nirṛti, Varuṇa, Vāyu, Kubera, and Īśāna.
22 We often find either 27, 28, or 64 Nakṣatras. von Stietencron, 2013, p. 75, 81, points out that
this is problematic because the lunar and solar years do not match. He argues that 64, which
corresponds to the number of celestial yoginīs allows for the insertion of a leap month,
allowing for solar and lunar calendrical harmonization.
23Sherman E. Lee, 1967, "Clothed in the Sun: A Buddha and a Surya from Kashmir," The
Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Feb.), p. 48.
24Lee, 1967, p. 49; Francine Tissot, 2006, Catalogue of the National Museum of Afghanistan:
1931-1985, Paris: UNESCO Publishing, p. 355.
25 Lee, 1967, p. 49.
style of sitting. 26 A tenth or eleventh century Nepali relief found near Pātan also depicts Sūrya in

this European sitting position. Shimkhada notes this figure shares other attributes with the

Afghanistan Sūrya and may be based on Kushāṇa dynasty royal statues. 27 This demonstrates a

wide variety of Sūrya iconography, none of which conform to that found in the Netra Tantra.

Though more images that conform to the deific forms of the Netra Tantra may be uncovered, the

text largely focuses on the visualization of these deities. This means worship of Amṛteśa in

various forms was separate from ordinary temple worship. However, there is clearly overlap

with that temple worship as the mantrin performs the calendrical rites to the Brahmanical

deities with their appropriate offerings while imagining the forms of Amṛteśa and using the

Mṛtyujit mantra. This allows the king's officiant to worship Amṛteśa during all calendrical

festivals by what I call a Śaivizing of the Brahmanical deities, giving them unique attributes that

do not contradict their ordinary states but include Śaiva elements. Through this worship, the

mantrin honors the deity of each particular festival and simultaneously performs rites in honor

of Amṛteśa that ultimately protect and prolong the life of the monarch.

26Lee, 1967, p. 49; Deepak Shimkhada, 1984, "The Masquerading Sun: A Unique Syncretic
Image in Nepal," Artibus Asiae, Vol. 45, No. 2/3, p. 226.
27 Shimkhada, 1984, p. 226.