The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c12.13

c12.13

Forty-one Sādhanas in the Sādhanamālā are devoted to the worship of Mañjuśrī, and in them are described several distinct forms of the Bodhisattva. In finding out the names of the different varieties of Mañjuśrī special stress has been laid on the mantras rather than on the colophons of the Sādhanas. It should always be noted that in determining the names of gods the mantras are the safest guides, especially when one deity has several divergent forms. The different forms of Mañjuśrī are described in the following pages one by one having distinct iconographic peculiarities.