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Abhas Dharananda Rajopadhyaya

Prof. Dr. Arun Gupto

665.4 Arts and Aesthetics

19 January 2018

Kal Bhairav of Hanumandhoka: An Aesthetic Inquiry

At the premises of Hanumandhoka Durbar, the royal palace of Kathmandu in ancient,

mediaeval and even modern times, there is a larger-than-life stone icon of Lord Kāla Bhairava

(hereafter Kal Bhairav, without diacritical marks). Etymologically, the term ‘kāla’ refers

primarily to death and even fate, and Bhairava refers to the fierce aspect of Lord Śiva — mostly

related to the southern face of pañcamukhī (five-faced) form. This article aims at aesthetically

studying aforementioned icon in terms of its formal features as discussed by Hartman and

Sheppard. Discussing “art per se” (Hartman) would require an exploration of formal elements of

Kal Bhairav icon for “aesthetic experiences” (20). If beauty is “diverse constitution of objects”

and “complex constitution of agents” (21), then Kal Bhairav is aesthetically beautiful as the

wrathful aspect of Lord Śiva.

The 12-foot high black icon of Kal Bhairav (see Plate 1 at the end) is beautifully adorned

with serpents, tiger skin and apron made of human bones. The very magnanimity of the black

icon evokes the emotion of fear to its viewers, which when bound by religious narrative evokes

devotion to the otherwise fierce form. To an average devotee — say perhaps of Vaiṣṇava sect,

used to with calm and peaceful divine body, the icon of Kal Bhairav would actually seem

grotesque. Even when discussed in Bakhtin’s innovative concept of ‘grotesque body’ this would
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stand true as “lowering all ideals to the material level” (Bakhtin) in the school of ‘tantra’ that

“place[s] kāma, desire, in every sense of the word, in the service of liberation” (Flood 9).

Hindu tantric representations constitute use of human skulls, and serpents for Śaiva

tradition. The golden crown of Kal Bhairava too is ornamented with four white skulls

surrounding a yellow-colored face of Lord Brahmā, the creator of the universe. Each of them is

presented with flames bearing a central pearl — red and green in alternate. The ornaments on the

two large ears are of serpents, yellow in color. The eyes are depicted wide open, and so is the

mouth to portray the fierce of the deity. The third eye on the forehead too is like the two others

with large pupils staring directly at the viewers. The white, ordered, churning teeth are usually

covered by offerings to the Lord.

Kal Bhairav is presented with six hands — three on each side holding black-colored

khadga, triśula (trident) and skull-mupātra vessel (Bajracharya) on the left and dhāla (armor),

toupee of five-faced Brahmā and vindu mudrā on the right. The Lord is depicted with garlands of

serpents in yellow and black with yellow dots, and of human skulls. The arm-bands, wrist-bands

and leg-bands are all of yellow-colored serpents. The lower apron is made of tiger skin and is

bordered with a number of human skulls.

Kal Bhairav steps on betāla figure presented nude under Bhairava’s two feet, and a

figure hangs on the back of the Lord. The wall is blue in color; flames in yellow plus red border

the main icon. Bordering the flame again is a figure of a demi-god kṣepu — also a Hindu symbol

of death (Bajracharya). The demi-god is also presented with large eyes set upon the viewers and

two big, protruding teeth as if a vampire, who engulfs two serpents on either side. Faces of sūrya

(Sun) and candra (Moon) is depicted at top left and right corners respectively.
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The central hands are presented in diagonal way, while other hands are perfectly right-

angled for a clear view. The huge thighs proportionately carry the huge body of the Lord. The

protruding belly is almost spherical, as if the entire world is within. The right feet of Kal Bhairav

perfectly lines up with the furthest left hand, while the bent left feet mirrors the furthest right

hand of the Lord carrying the large sword.

Barasch focuses on color experience, in compliance with Kandinsky’s On the Spiritual in

Art, devoted mostly to painting. He variedly calls it “effects” (Kandinsky 156-160), “results” or

“consequences” of color (Barasch 320). As a dark color, black dominates the major part of the

image, symbolic of fearsome “effect” of death and wrath of the Lord. The contrast of yellow (a

terrestrial color for Kandinsky and Barasch 337) shows the human heads distinct and that of

white shows the skulls distinct. In proportion to the normal human height, the icon is huge in size

almost by double the size of average human and so it is in the case of width. Kal Bhairav

occupies the most space than the betāla, kṣepu (Bajracharya) or any other image presented inside

its premises to reiterate the fearsome aspect.

The serpents are symbols of the ornaments of Lord Śiva, of whom Bhairava is an aspect.

The heads at the middle right hand of the Lord is symbol of Bhairava wrathfully cutting the fifth

upward-facing head of Lord Brahmā, who angered Kal Bhairav furthermore. The third eye on

the forehead and trident are both common to Lord Śiva and Bhairava, and important

representation of the Śaiva-Śākta tradition. The skull-vessel is symbolic of the Śaiva tantra

tradition that Bhairava is associated with and is believed to never be full, as a myth goes that

Lord Viṣṇu (the protector) could not fill it up with blood from his forehead dripping into it for

eons. All these formal features in the icon of Kal Bhairav help make the image more fearsome,

and yet aesthetically pleasant and worthy of worship of such a wrathful Lord.
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Works Cited

Bajracharya, Yadi Ratna. Artistic Heritage of Nepal. Kathmandu: Federation of Handicraft

Associations of Nepal, 1998.

Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World. Trans. Hélène Iswolsky. Bloomington: Indiana

University Press, 1993 [original 1941].

Barasch, Mashe. Modern Theories of Art 2: From Impressionism to Kandansky. New York: New

York University Press, 1998.

Butler, Christopher. Pleasure and the Arts: Enjoying Literature, Painting, and Music. New

York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Flood, Gavin. The Tantric Body: The Secret of the Hindu Religion. London: I B Tauris, 2006.

Hartman, Henry G. "Beauty and Art." Aesthetics: A Critical Theory of Art. Columbus: RG

Adams, 1919. 11-21.

Kandinsky, Wassily. On the Spiritual in Art. Ed. Adrian Glew. Trans. M T Sadler. New York:

MFA Publications, 2001 [original 1912].

Sheppard, Anne. Aesthetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.

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Plate 1: The Kal Bhairav icon at Hanumandhoka, Kathmandu

Courtesy: alamy.com