Book cover with Virupa and Sachen Kunga Kyingpo

This painting would have decorated the inside of a book cover, visible only to those few who commissioned and cared for the manuscript it protected. The central image features a charismatic man with bulging eyes, identifiable as the Mahasidda Virupa, a historical figure from India (600s CE) famous for his superhuman cerebral powers. Here, Virupa points to the sun, commanding it to stay in place, illustrating a story in which he promised a bartender he would pay his bill (and stop drinking) only when the sun set.