The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c13.s12: 14. Sukhāvatī Lokeśvara
The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sādhanamālā and Other Cognate Tāntric Texts of Rituals c13.s12
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14. Sukhāvatī Lokeśvara
c13.s12.1
Colour—White Faces—Three Arms—Six Asana—Lalita Companion—Śakti
c13.s12.2
A description of the deity occurs in the Dharmakoṣasaṅgraha of Amṛtānanda. Nepal abounds in images of Sukhāvatī Lokeśvara both in stone and in bronze, though his images are not found in any other Buddhist country of the North. The description above referred to runs as follows:
c13.s12.3
“Trimukhaḥ śvetavarṇaḥ ṣaḍbhujaḥ dakṣe mudrāḥ, śarakṣepa-japa-mālā-varadāni, vāmeṣu dhanuḥ-kamala-Tārorūsamarpaṇāni lalitāsanaḥ kamalopari, Vajratārā-Viśvatārā-Padmatārābhiḥ parivṛtaḥ. Upari caityaḥ. Sukhāvatī Lokeśvaraḥ”
c13.s12.4
“Sukhāvatī Lokeśvara is three-faced, white in colour, and six-armed. One of his right hands is in the act of shooting an arrow, the remaining two have the rosary and the Varada pose. In two of his left hands he carries the bow and the lotus, and the third is placed on the thigh of Tārā. He sits in Lalitāsana on the lotus, and is surrounded by the goddesses Vajratārā, Viśvatārā, Padmatārā and the like. There is a Caitya on the top”.
c13.s12.5
Fig. 119 illustrates a sculpture from Nepal representing the deity Sukhāvatī Lokeśvara. Here the god is in the company of his Śakti but is without the other companions as prescribed.