The Cult of Tara

44 MAGIC AND RITUAL IN TIBET
Fig. 6. The type of fierce patron: Yamantaka in the "ancient" form
of Quicksilver, the black poison-faced. From an iconographic sketch
by Tendzin yongdii.
and six hands, or with twenty-five heads and forty-two hands. Perhaps
the most interesting of these is Doje p'urpa, the "diamond
dagger," for here we find some scattered clues to Indian antecedents
for this very Tibetan deity: he has a miniscule and uninformative
Tantra of his own in the canonical Kajur collection, and he seems to
be described in passing by Nagarjuna, in his Short Evocation of the
mandala of Guhyasamaja. 83
In Tibet, Doje p'urpa is also titled the
"diamond prince": he has three heads and six arms, and in his main