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The use of this piece in a ritual context would have indicated that practitioners were following the methods for reaching enlightenment set forth in the Hevajra Tantra text. Nairatmya, the female consort of Hevajra, appeared to the yogi Virupa (at left) in a vision and revealed to him the contents of the text, which was then passed down through a lineage of disciples. An emanation of Akshobhya, the Cosmic Buddha of the East, Hevajra holds a skull bowl in his 16 hands. The rear pair of Hevajra'