SOME LESSER -KNOWN FACTS ABOUT MONA LISA

                                              

( Avtar Mota near the Pyramid entrance to Louvre)

                                                 ( Avtar Mota in the room housing Mona Lisa at  Louvre)

                                             

                                                        ( Avtar Mota Near the Winged Victory  in Louvre )

Some Lesser-Known Things About the Mona Lisa

Whenever I am in Paris, a visit to the Louvre Museum is always on my agenda.  Not for Mona Lisa but for other precious relics of human civilisation that are housed in this complex. About Mona Lisa, a friend in Paris told me this :

"Had the Mona Lisa not been stolen from the Louvre in Paris on 21 August 1911, she would likely have remained a pleasing yet otherwise peripheral work amongst the museum’s thousands of other paintings. It was this act of theft that precipitated a global media sensation, and thereby transformed a comparatively little-known Renaissance panel into the world-renowned cultural icon that it is today."

Here are some more unknown facts about this painting that I came to know in Paris :

1. She probably had eyebrows and eyelashes*  

Traces show up in early infrared scans. Centuries of cleaning wore them away.  

2. Leonardo never gave it to the client.

He started it c.1503 for Francesco del Giocondo and kept it for 16 years, tweaking it until he died. 

 

3. He carried it to France . When Leonardo moved to work for King Francis I, the painting came with him in his luggage.  

4. The background doesn’t match. The left horizon is higher than the right. The two landscapes are from different places, which makes her look like she’s in a dream.  

5. It’s tiny. Only 77 cm x 53 cm — about 30 x 21 inches. People always expect something huge.  

6. Her dress is plain on purpose.No jewellery, simple dark dress and veil. For 1503, that was radical. Leonardo was painting psychology, not status.  

7. There are earlier versions underneath. Scans show a bigger collar, different headdress, and hairpins that Leonardo painted over.  

8. The "sfumato" smile trick.  No hard outlines around the mouth. Stare directly, and it fades. Look at her eyes, and the smile appears in your peripheral vision.  

9. She’s missing an edge. The panel was likely cut down a bit on all sides. Copies from the 1500s show columns on the sides that aren’t there now.  

10. The bridge is real... maybe. It’s often identified as the Ponte Buriano near Arezzo, but Leonardo mixed real and imagined landscapes.

11. It wasn’t famous until it was stolen. In 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia took it from the Louvre. Two years of newspaper coverage made her a worldwide icon.  

12. Picasso was questioned by police. Because of the theft. He and Apollinaire were suspects for a few days.  

13. It survived an acid attack and a rock. In 1956, someone threw acid, then a rock. The glass installed afterwards saved her. In 2009, someone threw a teacup too.  

14. Napoleon hung it in his bedroom. After Leonardo died, Francis I bought it. It later entered the royal collection and ended up with Napoleon.  

15. She has her own room now. The Louvre’s Salle des États was redesigned for her. Bulletproof glass, climate control, and crowd barriers.

16. "Price" : what was it bought for? King Francis I bought it from Leonardo’s heirs around 1518-1519 for about 4,000 gold écus. In today’s terms, estimates put that at roughly $50-$100 million, but there was no "market sale" like modern art.  

17. Insurance value: officially "priceless": The Louvre does not insure the Mona Lisa. French national treasures are covered by the state. For its  internal valuation, the Louvre has cited figures around $860 million to $1 billion+ in recent years.  

 

18. If it were insured today! Art insurers estimate a premium would be $2-$5 million per year at that valuation, but no company would actually underwrite it. The risk is too big.  

19. Most valuable painting ever sold (for comparison):  Salvator Mundi went for $450.3 million in 2017. Mona Lisa would almost certainly beat that at auction, which is why the $1B+ figure gets used.  

20. She earns the Louvre money instead: About 10 million people visit the Louvre each year.  And 80% come mainly to see her. She’s essentially a billion-dollar tourist engine.  

21. Restoration costs are huge but hidden. Major cleanings and climate control run into millions over decades. The 2004-2005 restoration alone took months and was done by Louvre specialists at state expense.

I  visited the Louvre twice, but couldn’t stay near the Mona Lisa for more than 20 minutes. The crowd was always thick, the glass reflected everything, and other important artefacts kept pulling me away. The Winged Victory, the Venus de Milo, the Egyptian rooms, The Pastoral Concert, Athena, Liberty Leading the People, the raft of Medusa and many more were waiting for me. 

 You go for Mona Lisa, and the whole museum answers back. And that’s how it felt. A brief stay, a brief look, and I moved on like the gentle morning breeze, always in a hurry, always fleeting .And that’s how it felt. 

"Hamein tha kaam bahut, ruuk sakay na pal do pal,  

Guzar gaye teray kooche se hum saba ki tarah"...(Jagan Nath Azad)

"We had so much to do, we couldn’t even stop for a moment or two,  

We passed by your street like  the morning  breeze; gentle and fleeting."

( Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

KABIR'S DOHAS: : A CHARTER FOR PUBLIC SERVANTS AND ALL OFFICERS

                                            

                               (A Painting of Kabir )

Kabir’s Dohas: A Charter for All Public Servants/ Officials 

Once, in a high-profile gathering, I was asked to speak on any subject of my choice.  

When I mentioned “Kabir and Public Service,” the organisers were understandably unsure. A colleague gently suggested I choose something more conventional, asking, “What does Kabir really have to do with administration?” It was a fair question. I’m no scholar of Kabir, only a student of what he taught. But I felt that without speaking of truth and service ,  the things Kabir lived for , I wouldn’t be able to speak from the heart.  

So, with some reluctance on their part and a lot of gratitude on mine, permission was given.

Upon conclusion of the address, a senior retired bureaucrat approached me. His words have remained with me. “You have opened my eyes,” he said. “I have heard something quite extraordinary. This is Kabir, and yet I have never heard him thus.”  

That exchange brings to light  the very lacuna this write-up seeks to address. We instruct public servants exhaustively in law, procedure, and financial propriety. We seldom, however, instruct them in conscience. Kabir supplies what statute cannot: a moral grammar for the exercise of discretion. He does not replace the rulebook. He animates it.  

In the text  that follows, I have sought to present selected Dohas not as devotional verse, but as an administrative ethic ; a charter of trusteeship, impartiality, integrity, prioritisation, craft, and humility. For if bureaucracy is indeed the nervous system of the state, then it requires not only structure, but soul. And in that regard, Kabir remains our most exacting, and most humane, instructor.

I have always held that bureaucracy is the nervous system of the state. When it works with discipline and integrity, citizens are able to access rights, services, and justice as intended. When it falters, the delivery of public good suffers. Kabir never held office, yet his Dohas offer one of the most enduring frameworks for a service culture in India. In two lines he cuts through ego, reminds us of purpose, and restores attention to duty. This is that manual , not for any one cadre, but for every public servant: clerk, constable, teacher, nurse, engineer, officer. It is not service-specific. It is human-specific. And it is precisely this basic grounding in humility, honesty and accountability that keeps institutions responsive and credible.

I. The Chair Is Not Yours: Detachment as First Duty 

"Udd jaayega hans akela, jag darshan ka mela"

(The swan flies alone. The world is only a fair to witness.  )

Trait: Trusteeship

The desk, stamp, vehicle, power and authority are the Mela. You are Hans. Tenure ends. Transfer orders arrive. Retirement arrives. What remains is what you did in the  Mela. A Panchayat Secretary who mutates land records in 7 days instead of 70 understands this. A station House Officer who registers FIRs without “Suvidha Shulk” understands this. The Hans takes nothing except reputation as it flies away.  

"Maati kahe kumhar se, tu kya rondhe mohe,

Ek din aisa aayega, main rondungi tohe"

(Clay says to potter: why do you pound me? A day will come when I shall pound you.  )

Trait: Accountability & Humility

  

The citizen is  Maati. You are Kumhar today. You pound with delays, bribes, rudeness.But remember the  'Ek din'  comes ; vigilance, media, court, or simply history. The Maati pounds back. Act as though the clay is alive. Because it is. Every file you touch is someone’s  homelessness, unpaid hospital bill, a relief or hope ,all waiting for your signature.  

"Rehna nahin des veerana hai"

(This land is not for staying. It is a willderness.)

Trait: Urgency of Service

'Veerana' is the queue outside the ration shop, the poor child with TB, and the farmer waiting for compensation. You won’t have 'Rehna' permanently here . The assignment  and the post is temporary. But the 'Veerana' is permanent unless you do it  today. Your  “Come next week” turns wilderness into desert.  

2 The Bazaar Test 

"Kabira khada bazaar mein, sabki maange khair,

Na kahu se dosti, na kahu se bair"

(Kabir stands in the market wishing good for all. Friendship with none, enmity with none.  )

Trait: Impartiality & Rule of Law

The Bazaar is your PHC, Tehsil,  Ward Office, Police Station. The MLA telephones. The contractor telephones. The woman from the Basti pleads. Your "Khair" is for all, not for the caller. This is Article 14 without the Latin. BPL selection, tender awards, beat policing ; if you pick sides, you leave the Bazaar and become a shopkeeper.  

"Sadhu aisa chahiye, jaisa soop subhay

Saar-saar ko gahi rahe, thotha dei uday"

"Be like a winnowing basket. Keep the grain, blow away the chaff.  '

Trait: Judgement & Discretion  

Every rule has Saar and  Thotha. A widow missing one document is "Saar."  A builder with 18 documents but no land is "Thotha" . Use "Soop Subhay" . The General Clauses Act allows you to interpret for justice. Blow away the chaff. Keep the citizen.  

"Dukh mein sumiran sab kare, sukh mein kare na koye

Jo sukh mein sumiran kare, to dukh kahe ko hoye"

(In sorrow all remember duty. In joy, none does. If you remembered in joy, sorrow would not come.  )

Trait: Preventive Governance

Desilting drains in April is  "Sumiran"  in  Sukh. Waiting for July floods is  "Dukh" . Vaccinating in January is "Sumiran" . An outbreak in March is "Dukh" . Good bureaucracy remembers duty when files are calm, not just when cameras arrive.  

3.Maya in the Government Office: Corruption, Complexity, Optics 

"Maya maha thagni hum jaani

Nirgun phansi liye khadi, sagun se laptaani"

(I know Maya, the great cheat. She stands with a noose of the formless, tangled with the formed. ) 

Trait: Integrity & Systems Vigilance

Maya is “Chai-paani” and also “the matter is under process.” Sagun maya: a Diwali hamper from a contractor or a proposed borrower to a bank manager . Nirgun Maya: 43 signatures for a death certificate. Maya hangs citizens with 'Phansi'. 'Hum jaani'means social audit, faceless assessment, geotagging, and saying no. If a file moves only after a call, Maya has won.  

For Kabir, Saguna Maya denotes the illusion of wealth, power, and material comfort that misleads individuals and diverts them from truth and ethical conduct. In “Maya maha thagni hum jaani”, he describes Maya as the great deceiver, ensnaring people through greed and attachment. Within offices , this finds expression in corruption, where the pursuit of money and position erodes integrity and compromises public duty. Kabir’s insight is therefore not only  a call for renunciation, but a reminder to perform one’s responsibilities with vigilance, lest Maya obscure the foundational purpose of service.

"Mun na rangaye, rangaye jogi kapda"

(You do not colour your mind, yet you colour your robe like a yogi.  )

Trait: Authenticity Over Optics

A Swachhata selfie while your office toilet is blocked ; 'Ranga Kapda'. A plantation drive while compensatory afforestation files rot ,Ranga Kapda. Colour your ,'Mun': do the transfer, clear the pension, inspect at night. Then wear whatever robe you wish. Citizens see through dye.  

"Chaltee chakki dekh ke, diya Kabira roye

Dui paatan ke beech mein, sabut bacha na koye"

  

(Seeing the grinding mill, Kabir wept. Between two stones, nothing stays whole.  )

Trait: Cutting Red Tape

The  Chakki is “bring Aadhaar for a birth certificate” and “bring a birth certificate for Aadhaar.” The citizen is grain. Be the hand that stops the stone. Single-window, deemed approval, self-attestation ,  these are your hands. If you add one more “NOC,” you turned the stone.  

4. Time Is a Tax: Speed, Focus, Persistence

"Kaal kare so aaj kar, aaj kare so ab

Pal mein pralaya hoyegi, bahuri karega kab"

(Tomorrow’s work today, today’s now. Catastrophe in a moment — when will you act?  )

Trait: Bias for Action

'Pralaya' is a child dying for lack of oxygen, a farmer taking his life due to delayed relief, a case dismissed for endless adjournments. The Tehsildar who conducts a spot enquiry in 24 hours, the CMO who clears a referral in 10 minutes, the linesman who climbs the pole in the rain ; they stop 'Pralaya'. “Put up next week” is administrative negligence.  

"Duvidha mein doou gaye, maya mili na Ram.  

Ekai saadhe sab sadhai, sab saadhe sab jaaye"

(Caught in doubt, you lose both the world and God.  

If you focus on one thing, everything gets done.  

If you chase everything, you get nothing.)

Chase one, achieve all. Chase all, lose all. 

Trait: Prioritisation

A BDO has 52 schemes. A headteacher has 20 circulars. A beat officer has 15 registers.  What matters: learning outcomes, IMR, conviction rate, or  water table. Conduct one real parent-teacher meeting rather than celebrate twenty five. One resolved land dispute is worth more than ten “review meetings.” 

"Dheere dheere re mana, dheere sab kuch hoye  

Mali seenche sau ghada, ritu aaye phal hoye"  

(Slowly, mind, all things happen. The gardener waters a hundred pots; fruit comes in season.  )

Trait: Patient Persistence

Ending open defecation, improving classroom learning, segregating waste , there is no  'Tatkal'. You are 'Mali' . Daily 'Seencho': inspect, nudge, review, repeat. Ritu of behaviour change takes years. Cynicism is  'Maya'. Retire, but do not tire.  

5.The Thread of Quality: Craft, Detail, Empathy

"Jhini jhini bini chadariya,

Kaahe ka tana, kaahe ki bharni,

kaun taar se bini chadariya" 

(I wove a fine sheet. What warp, what weft, with what thread was it woven?  )

Trait: Craftsmanship in Public Service

The  'Chadariya' is your service: ration card, FIR, lesson plan, discharge summary. One wrong  'Taar',  wrong name, wrong section, wrong dose , and the citizen is left exposed. Check the warp and weft, 'Jhini' work is patriotism.  

"Pothi padh padh jag mua, pandit bhaya na koye 

Dhai akhar prem ka, padhe so pandit hoye"  

(Reading books, the world perished, yet none became wise. Read the two-and-a-half letters of love, and you become wise.  )

Trait: Empathy Over Proceduralism

'Pothi' is your manual, GR, circular. Prem is why it exists. If Rule 4(b) denies aid to a flood victim because a “form is incomplete,” you have read 'Pothi' but failed ,'Prem'. Use relaxation clauses. Use humanity. That is 'Pandit'.  

"Jaat na pucho sadhu ki, puch lijiye gyan

Mol karo talwar ka, pada rehan do myan"  

(Do not ask the saint’s caste, ask his wisdom. Price the sword, let the sheath lie.  )

Trait: Non-discrimination & Merit

In your 'Bazaar', do not see caste, gender, religion, or dress. See 'gyan' ,  need, right, eligibility. The 'Myan' is surname, accent, clothes. The 'Talwar' is the human in distress. Price that.  

6 .Speech, Critics, and the Mirror 

"Aisi vani boliye, man ka aapa khoye

Auran ko sheetal kare, aaphu sheetal hoye"

(Speak words that dissolve ego. They cool others, and you become cool.  )

Trait: Dignified Public Dealing

“Go to that counter” is hot speech. “Let me help you here” is 'Sheetal'. During a riot, in a hospital, at a public service centre, your 'Vani' is medicine or poison. Choose. 'Aapa khoye 'means no “Do you know who I am?” You are the government. Be 'Sheetal'.  

"Nindak niyare raakhiye, aangan kuti chhawaye

Bin pani sabun bina, nirmal kare subhaye"

(Keep your critic close, build him a hut in the courtyard. He cleans you without soap or water. ) 

Trait: Grievance Redressal & RTI

The RTI applicant, audit memo, news report, public complaint ,  that is 'Nindak'. Do not transfer it or him. Do not threaten him. Build a 'Kuti' : CPGRAMS, 'Jan Sunwai,', social audit wall. He makes you 'Nirmal'. Corrupt systems hate critics. Clean ones employ them.  

"Jab main tha tab hari nahi, ab hari hai main nahin

Prem gali ati saankari, ta mein do na samahin" 

(When I existed, duty did not. Now duty exists, I do not. The lane of love is narrow; two cannot pass. ) 

Trait: Self-Effacement

“Hari” is public interest. “Main” is your photograph, credit, ego. In 'Prem Gali' only one passes. Choose. Press notes should read “the district administration did it,” not “I did it.” Awards are 'Maya'. Outcomes are 'Hari'.  

In sum, Kabir’s Dohas furnish a timeless ethical compass for public administration, transcending statutory prescription by foregrounding conscience, equity, and restraint. They admonish the servant of the state to regard authority as trusteeship rather than possession, to privilege impartiality over patronage, and to cultivate craft, empathy, and deliberative speed in the discharge of duty. In an era marked by procedural hypertrophy and performative governance, Kabir recalls the bureaucracy to its moral purpose: the mitigation of suffering and the enlargement of human dignity. Thus, where law provides the skeleton of governance, Kabir supplies its soul ,  rendering service not merely efficient, but humane and legitimate.

The state has laws. Kabir gives you conscience. The service has rules. Kabir gives you reason.  

( Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

THE JOURNEY OF TARA : FROM KASHMIR'S TEMPLES TO TIBET MONASTERIES

                                                

                                                                                                         (Green Tara )

From Kashmir’s Temples to Tibet’s Monasteries: Green, White and Red Tara

I remember my mother reciting the complete Panchakanyā Mantra every night before going to sleep:

Ahalyā Draupadī Kuntī Tārā Mandodarī tathā,

Pañchakanyāḥ smaren nityaṃ mahāpātaka-nāśanam.

The verse means: “One should remember daily Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara and Mandodari, for the remembrance of these five women destroys even the gravest of sins.” After completing the traditional mantra, my mother would add her own tender supplication: “He Devi, duṣṭa svapnaṃ mā darśaya,” meaning, “O Goddess, do not bring an evil dream into my sleep.”This simple nightly practice shows how sacred memory was preserved within the intimate world of the household, especially through mothers and elderly women. Tara, the wise queen of the Rāmāyaṇa and wife of Vāli, was one of the five women invoked in the Panchakanyā verse. Her name was therefore revered across the length and breadth of India, including in Kashmiri Pandit households, where Sanskrit prayers remained woven into domestic life. Later, when I  sought clarification regarding the identity of Tārā, I was told that the Tārā mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa could be understood, within a syncretic devotional tradition, as a Rūpa, or manifestation, of the compassionate Buddhist goddess Tārā, who was subsequently worshipped across Kashmir, the Himalayan regions and Tibet. Such an interpretation reflects the long history of interaction among Hindu, Buddhist and Tantric traditions in India, where sacred names, symbols and feminine divine forms often acquired new meanings across religious boundaries. However,  in the Rāmāyaṇa, Tārā is the wise wife of Vāli and the mother of Aṅgada, admired for her intelligence, foresight and political judgement. The Buddhist Tārā, by contrast, developed as a compassionate saviouress within Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna Buddhism and became especially prominent in the religious cultures of Kashmir, Nepal and Tibet. The suggested identification is therefore best understood as a later theological association rather than as a direct linkage to Ramayana itself.

Between the eighth and twelfth centuries, Kashmir functioned as the principal conduit for Tantric transmission to Tibet, and a succession of Kashmiri Pandits carried the valley’s ritual systems across the Himalayas. In the early period, masters such as Vimalamitra and Danashila travelled to Central Tibet during the reign of King Trisong Detsen and worked on the translation of Kriya, Charya and Mahayoga texts that later became foundational for the Nyingma school. The eleventh century witnessed the largest movement. Atisha Dipankara Srijnana spent twelve years in Kashmir studying under Dharmarakshita and Bodhibhadra, and in 1042 he brought to Tibet the Lamrim teachings together with the practices of Green Tara, White Tara and the Twenty-One Praises, thereby establishing Tara as a pan-Tibetan deity. At the same time, Kashmiri specialists such as Ratnavajra and Vagishvara Kirti entered Sakya and transmitted Red Tara, Kurukulla, Hevajra and Guhyasamaja together with the four activity schema of pacifying, increasing, magnetising and subjugating. Dharmashri and Subhakara contributed Kalachakra, Medicine Buddha and the earliest Tibetan commentaries on the Twenty-One Taras, while Jnanasrimitra and other logicians reinforced the philosophical framework. By the twelfth century, as institutions in India declined, Shakya Shri Bhadra made the final major crossing in 1204. As the last abbot to leave Kashmir before its Buddhist monasteries were destroyed, he gave full ordination to the Second Karmapa and carried the Vinaya, Abhidharma and Hevajra lineages to the Karma Kagyu. Other figures such as Parahita, Kasarpana and the female master Lilavajra further diversified the transmission with Yamantaka, Chakrasamvara and Vajra Tara practices. Collectively, these Kashmiri masters transferred not only texts but an entire method of deity Yoga, Mantra and visualisation that had been perfected at Sharada Peeth and the monasteries of Srinagar and Baramulla. When Kashmir’s Buddhist centres declined after the twelfth century, the tradition was preserved in Ladakh at Alchi, Wanla and Lamayuru, where 11th–12th century murals retain the Kashmiri style of Tara. Tibet had already become the archive, and the lineages of Green, White and Red Tara that remain central in Tibetan ritual today are directly traceable to this Kashmiri exodus.

Under the Karkota and Utpala dynasties, the Kashmir valley supported royal courts, the university of Sharada Peeth, and hundreds of monasteries in which Hindu Shaiva Tantra and Buddhist Vajrayana developed in close proximity.  It is in this milieu that Tara emerged as a Tantric deity. The name Tara means both "Star" and "She who ferries across". She is absent from early Vedic literature. Her appearance coincides with the shift from Vedic sacrifice to Mantra, Mandala and deity Yoga.  

In Kashmir, two distinct Taras took shape. First, Hindu Tara, the second of the ten Mahavidyas, depicted in blue, fierce, standing upon Shiva, associated with sound and liberation. Second, Buddhist Tara, a Bodhisattva manifesting as Green, White and Red, associated with compassion and skilful action.  

Because both traditions employed the same scribes, initiations and ritual manuals, they influenced one another profoundly. The outcome was a highly practical cult. Texts such as the Sadhanamala and the Tara Tantra prescribed precise colours, visualisations and purposes. This practicality made Tara readily exportable, and it is this Kashmiri template that Tibet later adopted in full.

 Centres of Tara Worship in Ancient Kashmir

  

Kashmir was not only a site of composition but also of active cultic practice. Although many structures were destroyed after the fourteenth century, textual and archaeological evidence identifies several key loci.

Sharada Peeth in Kupwara was the most prominent. A university and temple complex dedicated to Goddess Sharada, a form of Saraswati, it had by the eighth century become a major centre of Sanskrit learning and Tantra. It was primarily a centre of Śākta worship, though Buddhist scholars including Atīśa are recorded to have studied there. It is likely that Buddhist Tārā Sādhanas were taught alongside Śaiva practices in this syncretic environment.The ruins survive in POK.

The Martand Sun Temple complex at Anantnag was built in the eighth century by Lalitaditya. Though principally Shaiva and Saura, Martand also served as a hub for Tantric cults. Stone inscriptions and manuscripts recovered from the region record Tara Mantras.

At Parihaspora in the Srinagar Valley, an ancient capital, Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang records hundreds of Sangharamas in the seventh century. Excavations have yielded small Tara images carved in the green schist characteristic of Kashmir. These plaques were intended for personal devotion and for travel, precisely the kind of portable deity that would later be transmitted to Tibet.

The monasteries of Srinagar and Baramulla are attested in Kalhana’s Rajatarangini and in Tibetan biographical literature. They were centres where Kashmiri Pandits taught the Tara Kalpa. Atisha spent twelve years in Kashmir and, according to his biography, received Tara teachings from Dharmarakshita at a monastery near Baramulla. These institutions housed palm leaf manuscripts of the Arya Tara Sadhana and the Twenty-One Taras.

Finally, the cave and rock shrines of the Jhelum Valley reflect the Siddha strand of Kashmiri Tantra. Tibetan accounts describe rock carvings of Tara along trade routes to Ladakh and Gilgit. These functioned as way station shrines for merchants, and they form the background to Green Tara’s role as protector of travellers. By the eleventh century these centres were producing both texts and initiates. When Kashmir’s institutions declined after the fourteenth century, the lineage had already been transplanted to Tibet.

Tara in Western Himalayas

Tārā’s presence in the Western Himalaya to Kashmir reflects a deep historical and spiritual migration of Buddhist and Tantrik traditions. Originating in the great monastic centres of Bengal and Nalanda, Tārā was carried northward to Kashmir between the 7th and 11th centuries, where Kashmir became a major hub for Vajrayana Buddhism and Mahāvidyā worship. From Kashmir, monks, traders, and pilgrims travelled east through Zanskar and over the high passes into Lahaul and Spiti, bringing with them texts, rituals, and iconography of Green and White Tārā. In Lahaul, she was embraced as Dolma, the protective saviour of shepherds and travellers crossing dangerous Himalayan routes. While Kashmir later saw the decline of Buddhism, the valleys of Lahaul, Spiti, and Kinnaur preserved Tārā worship in monasteries like Kardang, Tabo, and Guru Ghantal. Thus, the Western Himalaya became both a refuge and a living continuation of the Tārā tradition that first flourished in Kashmir, linking the two regions through faith, art, and shared mountain culture.

The Three Principal Buddhist Taras of Kashmiri Origin

Kashmiri masters systematised Tara according to colour and activity. Three forms became central.

Green Tara, Syamatara, is the Protector. She is shown in emerald green with the right leg extended, ready to rise. Her mantra is Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha. Her function is protection from the eight fears: lions, fire, water, imprisonment and so on, understood psychologically as anger, pride and jealousy. The Sadhanamala describes her as the swift Tara. Kashmiri traders carried small green Tara images into Central Asia. In Tibet she became the personal Yidam of Atisha, who received her from Dharmarakshita in Kashmir, and she developed into the emergency deity of Tibetan Buddhism.

White Tara, Sitatara, is the Healer. She is white and bears seven eyes on the face, forehead, palms and soles. Her mantra is Om Tare Tuttare Ture Mama Ayuh Punya Jnana Pushtim Kuru Svaha. Her function is longevity, health and peace. White Tara Sadhana was common at Sharada Peeth, and she was associated with healing springs in the valley. In Tibet, she became central to Gelug long life rituals, and every Dalai Lama has maintained a White Tara practice traceable to Kashmir.

Red Tara, Kurukulla or Vajra Tara, is the Magnetiser. She belongs to the Padma family of Amitabha and is depicted in bright red. In her principal form as Kurukulla, she has one face, three eyes and four arms, dances, and holds a flower bow, flower arrow, hook and noose, standing upon the four maras. Her mantra is Om Kurukulle Hrih Svaha. Her function is to magnetise people, wealth, students and opportunities, and to bring harmony. Kurukulla was extremely popular in Kashmir, where the Sadhanamala lists three distinct Sadhanas. She represented the attraction activity employed by rulers and teachers. In Tibet she was introduced by the Kashmiri Pandit Ratnavajra and by other Indian masters to the Sakya and Kagyu schools, where she remains the principal magnetising deity.

The four activity schema, white for pacifying, yellow for increasing, red for magnetising, and blue or green for wrathful, is of Kashmiri origin. Tibet preserved the structure without alteration.

Theological Rationale

Tara addressed a clear human need. The Buddha taught that liberation transcends gender, yet devotees required a maternal figure. Tara is in essence beyond gender but appears in female form out of compassion. She is called Mother of all Buddhas because compassion gives rise to enlightenment.  She is also a Yidam. The practitioner does not merely petition her but identifies with her. Green embodies courage. White embodies healing. Red embodies love and influence. This system of deity Yoga was perfected in Kashmir and transmitted to Tibet intact.

Transmission from Kashmir to Tibet in the Eleventh Century

                                             

The pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet is well-documented as Bon, an indigenous tradition of nature-worship, ancestor veneration and Shamanic ritual that formed the basis of the Tibetan court and folk practice before the 7th century. This is recorded in early Tibetan chronicles, confirmed by Chinese Tang dynasty accounts, and supported by archaeology and the continuing existence of Yungdrung Bon monasteries today. Major Tibetologists and academic institutions recognise Bon as the faith that preceded Buddhism, and they also recognise that Buddhism and Bon later influenced one another profoundly. You can therefore include it with confidence as established historical context.

Tibet received Buddhism in two phases. The decisive phase came from Kashmir.  Atisha Dipankara Srijnana, 982 to 1054, was born in Bengal and spent twelve years in Kashmir. By the eleventh century, Nalanda and Vikramashila were in decline, and Kashmir remained the last centre of full Tantric transmission. In Kashmir,  Atisha studied under Dharmarakshita and received initiations of Green and White Tara together with the 'Twenty-One Praises'. His biographies record that Tara herself instructed him to proceed to Tibet.   In 1042, Atisha entered Tibet, established the Kadam school, and made Tara a pan-Tibetan deity. Subsequently, Ratnavajra and other Kashmiri Pandits introduced Red Tara and Kurukulla to Sakya. Tibetans referred to Kashmir as Pandita Desha, the Land of Scholars. For three centuries, monks travelled there for texts. By the time Kashmir’s monasteries collapsed, the lineage was secure in Lhasa.

Reasons for Tara’s Centrality in Tibet

Four factors explain her prominence. First, practicality. Green Tara addressed dangers on mountain passes, White Tara addressed illness, Red Tara addressed leadership and community. There was a Tara for each problem.  Second, the feminine principle. Tibet already possessed Bon goddesses and dakinis. Tara aligned with this indigenous emphasis on the compassionate feminine.  Third, authority. Atisha, Tsongkhapa and the Dalai Lamas all practised Tara. The Jokhang Temple houses a Green Tara statue associated with Atisha.  Fourth, accessibility. Villagers could recite the Mantra, while Yogis could undertake retreats of one hundred thousand recitations. Both drew upon the same Kashmiri template.

The Twenty-One Taras and Kashmiri Provenance

 

The Twenty-One Praises to Tara that Atisha brought to Tibet are a Kashmiri composition. Each verse describes a Tara with a distinct colour and activity. The text functions as a ritual toolkit. Examples include Green Tara for protection from the eight fears, White Tara for long life, Red Tara or Kurukulla for magnetising and subduing, Yellow Tara for increase of wealth, and Blue Tara for pacification of obstacles. The entire system derives from Kashmiri manuals.

Hindu and Buddhist Tara: The Kashmiri Divergence

Because both forms developed in Kashmir, they share methods while diverging in theology. Buddhist Tara belongs to Vajrayana. Her centres were Sharada Peeth and Buddhist monasteries. Her forms are Green, White and Red and peaceful. Her mantra is Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha. Her goal is to ferry beings across Samsara. Hindu Mahavidya Tara belongs to Shakta Tantra. Her centres were the Sharada Peeth and Shaiva temples. Her form is blue and fierce, standing upon Shiva. Her mantra is Om Hrim Strim Hum Phat. Her goal is Moksha and Siddhi. Both employed the Kashmiri method of Mantra, Yantra, and visualisation. After the fourteenth century, they developed independently.

Contemporary Legacy

(8th century, Kashmir Tara, brass, at the Royal Ontario Museum (Canada))

In Kashmir, the ancient seat of learning at Sharada Peeth now lies in ruins in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Local Hindus continued for centuries to venerate Tārā within the wider cult of Sharada, but this tradition suffered a severe setback after 1947, when the shrine came under Pakistani control following the tribal invasion. The later rise of armed insurgency in the Kashmir Valley, which forced almost the entire Hindu population into exile, further disrupted the region’s living traditions of worship and cultural continuity. Kashmir’s Buddhist inheritance now survives largely through manuscripts, sculptures and other artefacts preserved in institutions such as the Sri Pratap Singh Museum in Srinagar. In Ladakh, by contrast, the Kashmiri Buddhist artistic tradition survives in situ at Alchi, Wanla and Lamayuru. In Tibet, by contrast, the worship of Tārā remains a vibrant and continuous religious practice. Tārā Pūjā is commonly performed on the eighth and twenty-fifth days of the lunar month. Many monasteries maintain a chapel or shrine dedicated to her, while Thangkas depicting the Twenty-One Tārās are widely displayed in monastic spaces and private homes.

Further, Taragam, a village in Qazigund Tehsil of Anantnag district has a shrine dedicated to the goddess Tārā. It survives in the village and continues to attract devotees. Recently, an idol of Ugra Tara has been installed at the shrine. The existence of the shrine and the persistence of local religious tradition establish Taragam as another recognised centre of Tārā worship in Kashmir. The antiquity of the shrine needs further research.

In the West, since the 1960s Tara has become the most widely practised female Buddhist deity. Green Tara is used for anxiety, White Tara for health, and Red Tara for work and relationships. The scholarly consensus is clear. Without Kashmir there would be no Tibetan Tara. Without Sharada Peeth and the monasteries of Baramulla there would be no texts. Without Atisha there would be no transmission.

Bronze metal Tārā idols from Kashmir are now held in various museums across Europe and the United States, having reached these collections through theft or illegal sales over the past century. A specific example is the bronze Tārā image that was illicitly removed in 1973 from the Shri Pratap Singh Museum, Srinagar, Kashmir. This theft formed part of a single incident in which six antiquities were stolen , including bronze figures of a Jain Tīrthaṅkara, the Buddha, and Ardhanārīśvara. The Tārā may be dated stylistically to the 9th–11th century CE, reflecting the flourishing of Mahāyāna and Tantric Buddhism in medieval Kashmir and its distinctive tradition of metal casting. According to the museum’s accession and theft records, this particular idol has not been recovered and remains listed as missing.

Conclusion

Tara’s history mirrors that of Kashmir. She was born in the Tantric laboratories of Sharada Peeth and the monasteries of Srinagar, where masters asked how fear, illness and desire might be transformed. The answer was given in terms of colour, Mantra and visualisation. Green to protect. White to heal. Red to attract. In 1042, Atisha carried her across the Himalayas. The temples of Kashmir fell, but Tara endured and flourished in Lhasa.

When a Tibetan grandmother recites Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha, or when a Sakya lama performs the Kurukulla rite, they continue a lineage that began in the caves and courtyards of Kashmir.

Tara demonstrates that Tantra was not primarily concerned with magic. It was concerned with method. Methods for courage, healing and influence, applied with compassion.

From Sharada Peeth to the Jokhang of Lhasa, the mountains differ. The goddess remains the same. The instruction remains the same. Act, heal, attract, always for the benefit of others.

( Avtar Mota )

PS

(a)

The name Tārawatī, occurring in a verse attributed to the Kashmiri poet Samad Mir, should not automatically be identified with the Buddhist or Śākta goddess Tārā. Tārawatī was a common personal name among Kashmiri Pandit women, like Somāwatī, Līlāwatī, Indrawatī, Rūpawatī and Gunawatī. Some writers have nevertheless linked this verse to the worship of Goddess Tārā. Such an interpretation appears inaccurate, or at least insufficiently supported, because it exceeds what is apparent in the verse itself. The poet’s appeal to Tārawatī, his request for a compassionate glance and his promise to offer flowers may suggest reverence, longing or devotion, but these expressions do not establish that the addressee is a Buddhist or Hindu deity. Similar imagery is frequently used in Kashmiri love poetry, Sufi verse and mystical compositions addressed to a human beloved or symbolic feminine figure. Unless the poem’s title, its surrounding verses, the editor’s commentary or other reliable contemporary evidence explicitly associates Tārawatī with a particular shrine or goddess, the verse should not be presented as proof of Tārā worship in Kashmiri poetry. Scholarly caution requires that the name be understood first in its ordinary Kashmiri cultural context rather than being burdened with a theological meaning that the text itself does not convey.

(b)

Sources /Books Consulted

Beyer, Stephan. The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.

Kaul, Shonaleeka. The Making of Early Kashmir: Landscape and Process. New Delhi

Khosla, Romi. Buddhist Monasteries of Kashmir and Ladakh. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Kinsley, David. Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

Shaw, Miranda. Buddhist Goddesses of India and Tibet: Devi and Tara. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.

Rajatarangini of Kalhana. Translated by M.A. Stein. 2 vols. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1989.

The Complete Works of Atisa Sri Dipaṃkara Jnana, Jo-bo-rje: The Lamp for the Path and Commentary with Twenty-five Key Texts. Translated by Richard Sherburne, S.J. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan ( sourced through Internet Archives)

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