This is the continuation of a small part of an article on Himalayan painting by MADANJEET SINGH.

Both in Hindu and in buddhist Tantric beliefs, the duality of the sexes was developed with particular emphasis. One of the cardinal doctrines was the worship of the spiritual-sexual principle: the union of opposites. Dhyana, or meditation as abstract thought, was regarded as the male principle, which remained inert until activated by a cosmic female energy (Shakti, or Prajna). The worship could be sometimes quite literal: among many Tantric devotees, sexual ecstasy was held to be the road to release from the bondage of self_ and it was achived in a ritual in which the worshiper could identify with a particular deity. The magical instrument used to compel deities to reveal their spiritual attributes to the worshiper was the Vajra, a diamond or thunderbolt; hence the name Vajrayana (Vehicle of the Thunderbolt).