Chhinnamasta

Rendered in the characteristic miniature style with a flat perspective, this Jaipur School composition of Chhinnamasta, one of the ten Mahavidyas, is enclosed within a deep green and yellow border. The goddess is seated on a throne flanked by the yoginis (female practitioners of Tantra and Yoga) on either side. All the figures are dressed in a ghaghra-choli (Indian attire akin to a skirt and blouse), representing clothing from the western part of the subcontinent. Chhinnamasta holds her self-decapitated head on a tray as streams of blood spurt into her own mouth and that of the yoginis. Notably, this portrayal deviates from Chhinnamasta’s typical iconography by omitting the copulating couple Yama and Rati, whom she usually stands over to signify the interdependency between life, death and sex. The entire scene is positioned in the centre of a radiant sun.