Art. IV.—The Indian Buddhist Cult of Avalokita and his Consort Tārā ‘the Saviouress,’ illustrated from the Remains in Magadha

L. A. Waddell

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00143680

Art. IV.—The Indian Buddhist Cult of Avalokita and his Consort Tārā ‘the Saviouress,’ illustrated from the Remains in Magadha

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

L. A. Waddell

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The present paper brings the much despised Mahāyāna form of Buddhism fully home to the very cradle-land of Buddhism in India, and invests itwith unexpected importance in the history of Indian Buddhism.

No one has yet realized the vast extent to which Mahāyāna and Tāntrik Buddhist remains cover India; nor sufficiently realized the leading part played by the Mahāyāna in Indian Buddhism during its most popular period.

Type: Original Communications
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , January 1894 , pp. 51 - 89

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00143680 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1894

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^{page 54 note 1} For Nepal, Indraji, Pandit Bhagvanlāl in Archœlogical Surv. Rep. of Western India, No. 9, Bombay, 1879Google Scholar. For China and Tibet, Pander's, Das Pantheon des Tschangtscha Hutuktu, Berlin, 1890Google Scholar.

^{page 54 note 2} Tibetan names are Romanized as in Csoma de Körös' system, where the silent consonants are italicized; while the pronunciation is given orthographically in the Lhāsa dialect according to the ‘Hunterian’ Oriental system which is practically identical with that of Monier-Villiams, where the vowels are generally sounded as in Italian.

^{page 54 note 3} Tsiang's, H.Si-yu-ki (Beale's, transl.) ii. p. 232Google Scholar; also J.R.A.S. (N.B.) XV. p. 339.

^{page 55 note 1} Nanjio's, BaniyoCatal. p. 51Google Scholar.

^{page 55 note 2} Bibliotheca Indica, n. 455, p. 2, Calcutta, 1881Google Scholar.

^{page 55 note 3} B. N. Catal. p. 51.

^{page 55 note 4} The modern Tibetan Mahākaruna is ‘thugs-rje’ where thugs, while more honorific haa identically the same meaning as ‘snying.’

^{page 55 note 5} See Burnouf's, Lotus de la bonne Loi and Keen's, transl. in Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxi. p. 4Google Scholar.

^{page 55 note 6} , B. N.Catal. pp. 44–45Google Scholar.

^{page 56 note 1} Eastern India, i. 1838Google Scholar.

^{page 56 note 2} Gen. Cunningham's Archœol. Surv. Repts.; Burgess' Arch. Surv. Rep. West India; Anderson's Arch. Catalogue, Indian Museum. This last work has most fully recognized the Buddhist nature of many of the Indian images in the Calcutta Museum.

^{page 56 note 3} Lang. and Lit. of Nepal and Tibet, supplemented by Kern in his Der Buddhismus, etc., and in Amsterdam Roy. Soc. Jour. 1888, and as regards Java by DrGroneman, J. in Dutch Asiatic Hoc. Jour. for 1893Google Scholar.

^{page 56 note 4} Loc. cit.

^{page 56 note 5} Loc. cit.

^{page 58 note 1} For Avalokita's descent into the preta world and hell, see Kāranda-vyūha, translated into Chinese in the tenth century, A.D.; Burnouf's, Intro. pp. 220, etc.Google Scholar; and Eitel's Dict.

^{page 59 note 1} Apte's, Sanskrit Dict. p. 611Google Scholar.

^{page 59 note 2} Chamberlain's, Handbook for Japan, p. 20Google Scholar.

^{page 62 note 1} This Maṇi refers to Avalokita as ‘The Jewel’ in the Tāntrik six-syllabled mantra Onaia-ni pad-me Huṅ, the miraculous history of which is a chief theme in the book here named.

^{page 62 note 2} Dict. p. 23.

^{page 62 note 3} lxi. pt. i. p. 24.

^{page 63 note 1} Beal's, Si-yu-ki, 11. 103, 174Google Scholar.

^{page 63 note 2} Csoma de Körös' Grammar, p. 193.

^{page 64 note 1} According to the current Tibetan saying, ‘Without a Lāma in front God is not.’

^{page 65 note 1} For detailed list of the Jaina Yakshinis see Burgess', List from the Ratnas'āra (Bhāg. 2, pp. 706 ff.)Google Scholar in Indian Antiquary.

^{page 65 note 2} Tārā Satnāma—an Upadesa Dhāranī—Hodgson's Lang. and Lit. Nepal and Tibet, reprint, p. 19.

^{page 65 note 3} Analysis of Kah-gyur by de Körös, Csoma, Asiatic Researches, xx. p. 534Google Scholar.

^{page 66 note 1} For a somewhat similar instance of Lāmaist mistaken translation, see my article on The Buddhist Pictorial Wheel of Life, Jour. Bengal As. Soc. lxi. p. 154.

^{page 66 note 2} sngon is Old Tibetan, and seldom used in Modern Tibetan, where sngo with an added n in colloquial means both green and blue; while ljang-khu is a less ambiguous word for ‘green.’

^{page 66 note 3} Schlagintweit, (Buddhism, in Tibet, p. 66)Google Scholar has transposed the Nepalese and Chinese wives of Srong-tsan-gampo when speaking of them in relation to Tārā's two forms.

^{page 67 note 1} Part ii. Sikhim Gazetteer, Calcutta, 1892Google Scholar.

^{page 67 note 2} As ‘Dara-Eke.’ See Köppen, ii. 65.

^{page 67 note 3} Das Pantheon des Tschangtscha Hutuletu.—Koniglishe Museum für Volkerkunde, Berlin, 1890, i. 78Google Scholar.

^{page 68 note 1} In Tibetan works the Celestial Buddhas are called Jina—the term Dhyani Euddha of the Nepalese Buddhists seems unknown to the Lāmas.

^{page 68 note 2} rdsogs-pahi sangs-rgyas rnam par snang-mdsad chhen-po.

^{page 70 note 1} The polymorphism already referred to.

^{page 70 note 2} Kāma, Rupa, and Arupa.

^{page 71 note 1} As this hymn is so popular amongst Lāmaist people in Tibet, Sikhim, etc., I give here in the Lhāsa dialect its second stanza, which is the proper commencement of the hymn, in order to show its metre.

^{page 72 note 1} rgyal-wa=Sanskrit Jina.

^{page 72 note 2} This is a portion of Tārā's mystic spell, for which see p. 74.

^{page 72 note 3} Mystic spells used by wizards— phat= break or smash!

^{page 73 note 1} Heavenly musicians.

^{page 74 note 1} mthu=power, especially supernatural, and witchcraft.

^{page 74 note 2} Yang-dag=Skt. Samyak.

^{page 74 note 3} rtsa-wahi sngags=root of mysticism.

^{page 74 note 4} But see my article, “Lamaic Rosaries,” in Jour, Bengal As. Soc. vol. lxi. 1892, p. 24et seq.Google Scholar

^{page 74 note 5} pchom-lclan-hdas-ma, pronounced ‘chom-den-de-ma.’

^{page 75 note 1} In contradistinction to ‘fury-face’ (khro-bo; Skt. krodha).

^{page 75 note 2} Dub-bahi-Iha, for description of which see my Lamaism in Sikhim.

^{page 75 note 3} bgra-shis shok, pronounced Ṭā-shi-shō.

^{page 83 note 1} Zhi-wa=mild deity.

^{page 86 note 1} This refers evidently to the severed head of Daksha, the son of Brahma, which clung to Mahadeva's hands till released by bathing at Tamrilipti (Tamluk).

^{page 86 note 2} The picture of this form sometimes corresponds with the 17th verse of her hymn (v. ante) which makes her hold ‘the spotted deer of heavenly lake.’ This fact, taken in relation with the probable Sanskrit form of her title as Sārsiddhi, probably associates her with Sārnath near Benares, where the great Dharmacakra stupa still exists. If this be so, then as Sārnath is mentioned by Genl. Cunningham (Arch. Surv. Rep. i. 105) as a title of Mahādeva, who is sometimes represented with a deer in his hand, the deer would seem from Tārā's hymn to be the ‘Chital’ or spotted deer (Axis maculata).

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Art. IV.—The Indian Buddhist Cult of Avalokita and his Consort Tārā ‘the Saviouress,’ illustrated from the Remains in Magadha

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