The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c13.5

c13.5

From the Sādhanamālā and allied works it is possible to individualize at least fifteen different forms of Avalokiteśvara. All these forms are described in the following pages one by one. These fifteen by no means exhaust the forms of Avalokiteśvara since there is evidence that these forms even numbered one hundred and eight, each of them bearing distinct features and distinct names. In the Macchandar Vahal one of the numerous Vihāras of Kāṭhmāṇḍu in Nepal, there are paintings in many colours of one hundred and eight varieties of the Bodhisattva, executed on the wooden panel surrounding the main temple on three sides. These paintings appear to be at least two hundred years old, and they bear inscriptions in old Newari giving the names of deities they depict.