A bronze figurine
of
Yama
from Tibet, where
in
iconography the Vedic god of death is often depicted with the head of a
bull. Here, he is standing on his mount, i.e. a
buffalo or bull, which is copulating with a woman lying on
the ground. To confront death,
Yamantaka (fig.)
manifested the form of death (i.e. Yama) itself, thus in
art and
iconography, both Yama
and Yamantaka may be represented with bull’s heads, but
Yama can be distinguished by the
dhammachakka that he
wears as an ornament on his breast, a symbol of the
Buddhist teaching and his idiosyncratic mark.
|