Vajrabhairava is a many-armed and many-headed manifestation of the Bodhisattva Manjushri, whose head is symbolically placed amid the fiery hair above the deity’s most dominant, bovine face. Portrayed in the so-called “father-mother” position, this guardian of the Buddha’s doctrine tramples the enemies of the faith with his legs wide apart. With his main pair of hands, he embraces his Tantric partner Vidyadhara, who, like Vajrabhairava, grasps the god’s two main attributes: a skull and a ritual knife. The embrace of the two figures symbolises unity of the male and female aspect. Vajrabhairava, as a fierce manifestation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, represents the struggle against delusion (ignorance) and also against death, whose lord Yama he fights off.
