bhimaratha jatra distemper on cloth nepal

A lotus emerging from a blue lake supporting the stupa with Ushnishavijaya at the centre of the white dome beneath the eyes of the harmika and the golden umbrella wheels, Garuda and nagas hovering above the parasol, the Pancharakshas at the base, offering deities and auspicious emblems below, the lake surrounded by a landscape of mountains and rivers, with shrines to Hindu deities guarded by Buddhist protectors, a multitude of cloud-borne Buddhist deities with the Five Transcendental Buddhas flanked by Prajnaparamita and Shadakshari above, a donor beneath with a Vajracharya performing the Bhimaratha ceremony, four episodes of the rite depicted, with Mahakala below surrounded by offerings and flanked by the donor family. 

Hugo E. Kreijger, Kathmandu Valley Painting, The Jucker Collection, Boston, 1999, p. 82, no. 28.

This rare paubha, remaining in exceptional condition, was commissioned for the Bhimaratha rite of Jagama Simha and his wife Visnumati in 1830. The ceremony takes place on a Newari Buddhist’s attainment of seventy-seven years, seven months and seven days and frees them of temporal responsibilities with the onset of senility. A sculpture or painting of a stupa containing an image of Ushnishavijaya, the goddess associated with long life and immortality, is consecrated on the occasion of the rite. The inscription states that "In samvat 950 (1830), in the great city of Kantipura (Kathmandu), Laksminara Simha Tuladhara and sons, daughters and grandchildren... performed the Bhimaratha jatra and placed this paubha for his father Jagama Simha and mother Visnumati".