The iconographic development of krodha-vighnantaka - "wrathful destroyers of obstacles" - is the subject of this excellent study. Images of this class of deity first appeared in eastern India during the late sixth century and gradually came to characterize Indian Esoteric Buddhism by the late tenth or early eleventh century. In Buddhism, wrathful deities or fierce deities are the fierce, wrathful or forceful (Tibetan: trowo, Sanskrit: krodha) forms (or "aspects", "manifestations") of enlightened Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, or Devas (divine beings). Because of their power to destroy the obstacles to enlightenment, they are also termed krodha-vighnantaka, "Wrathful onlookers on destroying obstacles".[1] Wrathful deities are a notable feature of the iconography of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism.