The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c12.2

c12.2

It is difficult to fix the exact time when Mañjuśrī entered the pantheon of the Northern Buddhists. His images are not found in the Gandhara and Mathura schools of sculpture, and Aśvaghośa, Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva do not mention him in their works. His name occurs for the first time in the Āryamañjuśrīmūlakalpa which is obviously a pre-Guhyasamāja work, and then in the Guhyasamāja Tantra which is dated circa 300 A.D. In this work there are at least four¹ references to Mañjuśrī and three² to Mañjuvajra. His name also occurs in the Sukhāvatī Vyūha or the Amitāyus Sūtra in its smaller recension³ which was translated into Chinese between A.D. 384 and 417. Subsequent Buddhist works however give many references to Mañjuśrī, and in the accounts of foreign travellers like Fa-hien⁴, Hiuen-Thsang, I-Tsing, Mañjuśrī also finds mention. His images are to be found in the sculptures of Sarnath, Magadha, Bengal, Nepal and other places.