The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c15.1

c15.1

The number of deities emanating from the Dhyāni Buddha Akṣobhya is quite large, larger than that of the emanations of any other Dhyāni Buddha. The blue colour of Akṣobhya is associated with the terrible deities in the Sādhanamālā and with the gruesome rites in the Tantras, and the deities emanating from this Dhyāni Buddha are generally of blue colour and terrible in character both in deed and in appearance. With the exception of Jambhala, the God of Wealth, all the male emanations of Akṣobhya have a terrible appearance with distorted face, bare fangs, three blood-shot eyes, protruding tongue, garland of severed heads and skulls, tiger-skin and ornaments of snake.