An inscribed copper alloy figure of Mahasiddha Avadhutipa, Tibet, 16th century

Collection of Jack (1926-2017) and Muriel (1929-2019) Zimmerman, acquired prior to 1973.

MAHASIDDHA AVADHUTIPA, INCOMPARABLE VAJRA 

Dr Yannick Laurent

This finely cast sculpture represents the Indian mahasiddha Avadhutipa and bears two distinct inscriptions serving different functions. An ornamental inscription in Ranjana script runs along the lower ridge of the pedestal, while a dedicatory inscription in Tibetan script on the reverse explicitly identifies the figure and includes a short verse of homage.

Avadhutipa was an Indian mahasiddha remembered in Tibetan sources for his radical renunciation and distinctive mode of realised conduct. The Tibetan tradition situates him within the early Indian phase of the Lamdre lineage and, on this relative basis, he is generally placed tentatively between the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. According to these sources, he was originally a powerful king of Magadha, an ancient region of north-eastern India, roughly corresponding to present-day Bihar and long recognized as a major center of early Buddhist culture and learning. His royal name is preserved in Tibetan as Sengé Nampar Tsenpa (Tibetan seng ge rnam par rtsen pa).

At the height of his worldly authority, Sengé Nampar Tsenpa is said to have encountered the tantric adept Damarupa, under whose guidance he received profound esoteric instructions transmitted orally and regarded within the tradition as complete and authoritative. Following the reception of these teachings, he renounced his kingdom entirely, abandoning political power and material wealth “like dust”. His renunciation did not take the form of withdrawal into monastic seclusion. Instead, he adopted a deliberately unconventional mode of life, remaining in the city and spending his time among children, behaving in ways that appeared simple or even foolish to ordinary observers. Tibetan sources characterize this behavior as “the conduct of the renunciation of duality” (Tibetan gnyis spangs kyi spyod pa), a form of embodied realization in which dualistic distinctions such as high and low, pure and impure, or sacred and profane are fully relinquished. It was through this mode of realized conduct that he became known as Avadhutipa.

This understanding of Avadhutipa’s life and practice is explicitly echoed in the Tibetan dedicatory inscription on the present sculpture, which reads:

༄༅།། ཟབ་མའོ ་􀄫ལམ་ལ་རབ་􀇣ོན་པས་དངོས་

􀅴བ་􀆖ེས་ནས་􀇅ིས་པ་ཡསི ་􀆍ལ་􀅱ིས་གཉིས་

མེད་􀆻ོད་པ་མཛད་ཨ་ཝ་􀈢་􀆛ི་ལ་􀇀ག་འཚལ།

Zab mo’i lam la rab rtsonc pas dngos

grub snyes nas byis pa yis chul gyis gnyis

med spyod pa mdzad a wa dhu rti la phyag ’tshal

This translates as:

“Having attained siddhi through unwavering diligence in the profound path,

He dwelt beyond duality, acting in the manner of a child.

I prostrate to Avadhutipa.”

The verse succinctly articulates key elements of Avadhutipa’s hagiography as transmitted in the Tibetan tradition: the attainment of siddhi powers through sustained engagement with the profound path, the transcendence of dualistic perception, and the adoption of child-like conduct as an outward expression of realized non-duality. This behavior is presented not as an anecdotal curiosity, but as a visible sign of spiritual accomplishment.

The Tibetan tradition further records that Avadhutipa bore the secret tantric name Asamavajra (Tibetan mi mnyam rdo rje), meaning “Incomparable Vajra”, a designation aligned with tantric ideals of indestructible and non-dual awakened awareness. His historical importance, however, rests less on titulature than on transmission. Avadhutipa is remembered as the teacher of the Indian paṇḍita Gayadhara, to whom he transmitted the complete body of teachings he had received. No independent writings, ritual cycles, or devotional cult are attributed to him. His legacy is instead defined by the conjunction of realized conduct and lineage continuity.

Although devotional in nature, the verse of homage also allows the inscription to be situated within a specific institutional and liturgical context. Far from being a unique or improvised composition, the verse is attested verbatim in several Sakya sources, particularly those associated with the Ngor tradition. In these contexts, it functions as a standardized praise addressed to Avadhutipa as one of the lineage masters of the Lamdré (Tib. lam ’bras), the “Path with Its Fruit”, a comprehensive system of tantric doctrine and practice centered on the Hevajra cycle, in which the stages of the path and the realization of its result are articulated as inseparable.

The appearance of this verse on the present bronze is therefore significant. Although the inscription does not record a patron, date, or artisan, its exact correspondence with Lamdré lineage liturgies situates the image within a clearly defined devotional and institutional framework. The sculpture is best understood not as an isolated portrait of a mahasiddha, but as part of a structured visual articulation of lineage transmission, in which each master is honored through a fixed verse corresponding to his position in the succession.

This interpretation is supported by textual sources such as the eighteenth-century 'Liturgy for the Offering to the Lamdré Lineage Masters', a compilation of standardized homage verses. In that text, Avadhutipa appears in sixth position in the lineage, following Ḍamarupa and preceding Gayadhara, in accordance with the established Sakya transmission. The identical wording of the verse in this compilation and on the bronze places the object firmly within Lamdré lineage veneration, rather than pointing to a personal dedication. On this basis, it is reasonable to propose that the present bronze was commissioned within a Sakyapa, and possibly Ngor-affiliated, milieu, and that it originally formed part of a larger set depicting the Lamdré lineage masters. Such ensembles are well documented in Sakya artistic production, both in painted and sculptural form. While the present image alone cannot determine the original scope or composition of the set, attention to material features such as patination, stylistic criteria, and the combined use of Tibetan dedicatory and ornamental Ranjana inscriptions may, in future, allow related works to be identified and the ensemble more precisely reconstructed.

In addition to the Tibetan dedicatory inscription, the ornamental Ranjana text on the pedestal can be identified as the Ye dharma hetuprabhava formula. This is a foundational Buddhist verse encapsulating the doctrine of dependent origination (pratityasamutpada): “Those dharmas which arise from a cause, the Tathagata has declared their cause, and that which is their cessation. Thus the great renunciant has taught”. The formula was frequently inscribed on images, stupas, and ritual objects as a concise expression of the Buddha’s teaching. This traditional verse, which encapsulates the Buddhist doctrine of dependent origination (pratityasamutpada), was widely employed in the medieval Buddhist world not only as a concise doctrinal statement but also as a consecratory formula. From at least the early medieval period, it was commonly inscribed on clay seals, miniature stupas, and images, where it functioned as a substitute for, or functional equivalent of, corporeal relics of the Buddha. Its presence marked an object as ritually complete and capable of embodying the Buddha’s dharma-body.

Within this broader ritual and material context, the appearance of the Ye dharma formula on the pedestal of an image representing Avadhutipa is best understood as a conventional yet meaningful component of image consecration, rather than as a text specific to his biography or lineage. The sealed underside of the base indicates that the sculpture contains consecration materials placed within it at the time of ritual activation. In this setting, the Ranjana inscription does not function as a substitute for internal deposits, but as an external textual marker that reinforces the sanctity of an already consecrated image. Its role is therefore best understood as symbolic and augmentative, aligning the sculpture with established Buddhist practices in which canonical formulae enhance, rather than constitute, the ritual efficacy of images.