The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c10.1

c10.1

The pantheon of the Northern Buddhists revolves round the theory of the five Dhyāni Buddhas. The Buddhists believe that the world is composed of five cosmic elements or Skandhas. The five Skandhas are Rūpa (form), Vedanā (sensation), Saṁjñā (name), Saṁskāra (conformation) and Vijñāna (consciousness). These elements are eternal cosmic forces and are without a beginning or an end. These cosmic forces are deified in Vajrayāna as the five Dhyāni Buddhas. In the course of time they were regarded as the five primordial gods responsible for this diversified creation, and thus Vajrayāna took a polytheistic form, although polytheism can hardly apply to a system which considers Śūnya as the One, Indivisible and Ultimate Reality. But so long as form could not be given to Śūnya as an anthropomorphic deity, the system of five Dhyāni Buddhas certainly had the flavour of polytheism. The priests and the Vajrayāna authors were conscious of this shortcoming, especially in view of the fact that all the six Hindu systems of philosophy tended to develop a highly monistic philosophy. They tried at first to cure this defect by the theory of the Kulas (families), and Kuleśas (lord of families) of gods and men, and thus divided everything into five groups. For each group, a particular Dhyāni Buddha becomes the Kuleśa or the primordial lord, all other groups taking their origin from him. Another grand conception of the Vajrayāna Buddhism is the theory of the highest god Vajradhara, also called Ādibuddha, the primordial monotheistic god who is the embodiment of Śūnya to whom even the Dhyāni Buddhas owe their origin. The theory originated in the Nālandā monastery in about the 10th century.¹ Thereafter, a large number of images of Vajradhara must have been made in the different schools of art. The special Tantra dedicated to Ādibuddha is the Kālacakra Tantra which appears to be the original Tantra in which the doctrine of Ādibuddha was for the first time inculcated. The Kālacakra Tantra thus is a product of the 10th century. Vajradhara was particularly popular in Nepal and Tibet where numerous images of this primordial god are to be met with. Alexander Csoma de Koros places the introduction of this conception of Ādibuddha in Central Asia in the latter half of the 10th century. It originated at Nālandā according to him in the beginning of the 10th century, and no mention of the Ādibuddha cult is made by any writer prior to this time. Homage is paid to Ādibuddha in the shape of a flame of fire which the priests consider as eternal, self-born and self-existent. It is said in the Svayambhū Purāṇa that Ādibuddha first manifested himself in Nepal in the form of a flame of fire, and Mañjuśrī erected a temple over it in order to preserve the flame. This ancient temple is known as the Svayambhū Caitya.