The four-armed, wrathful dark-blue Trakṣad Mahākāla has a bear’s head jutting out on the right behind his skull diadem. His brown hair streams upwards and he wears orange silk robes, a flowing cape with bear’s claws attached and a necklace of freshly severed heads. His upper two hands hold a poison tree and a stick; his lower hands hold a noose and a heart-filled skull. Surrounded by flames and set within a triangle, he rides a black horse adorned with ornaments. Behind the horse’s tail is a naked human figure, lassoed round the neck by a blue snake. In the top right corner is a Gelugpa monk, wearing robes and a pandita hat and holding a bell and vajra. Beneath Mahākāla is four-armed Śrī Devī, who rides a mule with an eye in its flank across a sea of blood. She wears a flayed human skin; her upper hands hold a sword and a mongoose and her lower a skull cup full of blood. In the foreground of the painting, set in a gentle landscape of triangular hills, are various offerings including torma and auspicious gems.
