Page from a Newari sketchbook: Utra

Newars were among the earliest people to settle the Kathmandu Valley. Many took up the occupation of artists, using iconographical drawings to guide their production of religious imagery. The four page comes from a nowdispersed manual that contained images of various Hindu deities. One side of each page in the museum's collection contains the illustration of a goddess. The other side contains sketches, diagrams, and instructional texts that, in many instances, do not pertain to the figure on the reverse.

An unidentified fierce female deity with three heads brandishes symbolic weapons in each of her eight hands. Legs crossed, she sits atop a crocodile, which itself rests on a lotus. Around her neck hangs a garland of skulls; a serpent writhes in and out of its folds. Her fiery red hair stands on end, all but filling her halo. Around each head she wears a crown decorated with skulls.