Kurukullā

Kurukullā in Samye Monastery

Kurukullā (Tibetan: ཀུ་རུ་ཀུ་ལླཱ་, Wylie: ku ru ku ll'a, ZYPY: ku ru ku la ; also: Rigdjema, tib.: rig byed ma) which means "the cause of knowledge"^[1] is a female, peaceful to semi-wrathful Yidam in Tibetan Buddhism particularly associated with rites of magnetization^[2] or enchantment.^[3]

Representation

Kurukullā is a goddess whose body is usually depicted in red with four arms, holding a bow and arrow made of flowers in one pair of hands and a hook and noose of flowers in the other pair. She dances in a Dakini-pose and crushes the asura Rahu (the one who devours the sun). According to Vedic astrology, Rahu is a snake with a demon head (Navagraha) who represents the ascending lunar node.

She is considered either an emanation of Amida Buddha, one of Tara's forms, or a transformation of Heruka.

History

Kurukullā was likely an Indian tribal deity associated with magical domination. She was assimilated into the Buddhist pantheon at least as early as the Hevajra Tantra, which contains her mantra. Her function in Tibetan Buddhism is the "red" function of subjugation. Her root tantra is the Arya-tara-kurukulle-kalpa (Practices of the Noble Tara Kurukullā).^[2] It was translated by Ts'ütr'im jeya, a disciple of Atiśa.^[4]

Mantra

The mantra of Kurukulla

The essential mantra of Kurukullā is Oṁ Kurukulle Hrīḥ Svāhā (Tibetan: ༀ་ཀུ་རུ་ཀུ་ལླེ་ཧྲཱིཿསྭཱ་ཧཱ ). This mantra uses the vocative form (Kurukulle) of her name.

Notes

References

• Beyer, Stephan (1978). The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet. University of California Press. pp. 301–310. ISBN 0-520-03635-2. 
• Dharmachakra Translation Committee (tr.) (2011). The Practice Manual of Noble Tara Kurukulle (PDF). 84000. Retrieved 2015-03-22. 
• Reynolds, John Myrdhin. "Kurukulla: The Dakini of Magic and Enchantments". Vajranatha.com. Retrieved 2016-05-28. 

Further reading

• Donaldson, Thomas E. (2001). Iconography of the Buddhist Sculpture of Orissa: Text. Abhinav Publications. pp. 298–301. ISBN 9788170174066. 
• Shaw, Miranda (2006). "Krukulla: Red Enchantress with Flowered Bow". Buddhist Goddesses of India. Princeton University Press. pp. 432–447. ISBN 978-0691127583. 
• Vessantara (2003). "Kurukulla and the Rite of Fascination". Female Deities in Buddhism: A Concise Guide. Windhorse Publications. pp. 79–81. ISBN 9781899579532. 

External links

• Kurukulla Main Page at HimalayanArt.com
• Kurukulla Thangka Painting made by Nepali artists.
• The Practice Manual of Noble Tara Kurukulle - translated from the Tibetan canon - at 84000.