The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c12.8

c12.8

It is said therein that Mañjuśrī hailed from China, where he was living on mount Pañcaśīrṣa (the Hill of Five Peaks). He was a great saint with many disciples and followers, including Dharmakara, the king of the country. Receiving divine intimation one day that the self-born Lord Ādibuddha, has manifested himself as a flame of fire on a lotus on the waters of Lake Kālīhrada in Nepal, he forthwith set out for that country along with a large number of his disciples, his two wives and king Dharmakara, with the intention of paying homage to the deity. When he came to the lake, however, he found a great expanse of water surrounding the god rendering him quite inaccessible, and it was with immense difficulty that he could approach the flame and offer his obeisance. Having at last succeeded in doing so, however, he cast about in his mind for some means of making the god accessible to all and he began a circuit of the lake. When he reached the southern barrier of hills, he lifted his sword and clove it asunder. The hill was split into two, and the water rushed through that opening, leaving behind a vast strench of dry land, which is now known as the as the Nepal Valley. The waters of the Bāghmatī flow down even to this day through that opening, which is still called "Koṭ-bār" or "sword-cut".