Humkara, the ‘Syllable Hum”, is a name given to a wrathful form of the deity Sambara, who is also known as Trailokyavijaya, meaning ‘Victorious over the Three Worlds’.  The gesture of vistory over the three worlds (Sanskrit: Humkara-Mudra) is a combined hand gesture formed by crossing the forearms over the heart, with the right ‘method’ forearm placed in front of the left ‘wisdom’ forearm.  The two hands are closed into loose ‘vajra-fists’, with the second hand and third fingers forming circles with the thumbs, and the first and fourth fingers gracefully extended into the hand posture commonly known as the vajra-mudra.  The deity usually holds the method and wisdom attributes of a vajra and bell in his crossed right and left hands, and this principal gesture is often identified as the vajrahumkara-mudra.  Many of the semi-wrathful yidam deities, particularly those that emanate from blue Akshobya Buddha, such as Chakrasamvara, Guhya-samaja, Kalachakra, and Vajrahumkara, are represented with their two principal arms crossed in Vajradhara’s gesture of the vajrahumkara-mudra.  Vajradhara, as the Lord of all the Buddha Families, is regarded as the primordial dharmakaya form in which Shakyamuni Buddha manifests in order to reveal the Tantras.

The gesture of ‘Victory over the Three Worlds’ (Sanskrit: trailokyavijaya mudra) is identified with the humkara-mudra made by the deity Vajrahumkara, who holds both hands triumphantly crossed above his head with the palms facing outwards.

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