Thangka of Pindola Bharadvaja

Pindola Bharadvaja is shown in a three-quarter view, bald with a white beard, wearing layered orange and green robes. He sits on a pink mat, holding an alms bowl in his left hand, while his right hand accepts a rectangular sutra volume wrapped in a white cloth offered by a young, standing attendant. Behind the arhat is a large, solid red halo, a leafy tree with blooming flowers, and an ornate table or altar holding a ritual vase and a conch shell. The composition is set within a vibrant landscape of swirling clouds, green hills, and rocks, bordered by patterned Chinese silk brocade.

Pindola Bharadvaja is one of the Sixteen Arhats, or Sthaviras, who are tasked by the Buddha with protecting the Dharma until the arrival of the future Buddha, Maitreya. This depiction follows the standard iconographic conventions for the arhats, often found in Tibetan Buddhist devotional paintings used for meditation and rituals of merit-making.