Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Manjuvajra, an Esoteric Manifestation of Manjushri
Not on view
This six-armed esoteric form of Manjushri emerged in Buddhist imagery late in the Pala period; all known images date to the eleventh and tweflth centuries. A visualized form of bodhisattva Manjushri, with three faces and six arms, Manjuvajra is described in the Nishpanna Yogavali (Garland of Perfection Yoga) as providing a path to wisdom and intelligence. The crossed hands at the chest invoke the embrace of his consort, Prajna (wisdom); the display of weapons, the dispelling of ignorance; and the wisom book (pustaka), the path.
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