The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c17.s1.2

c17.s1.2

Pandit Amṛtānanda's Dharmakoṣasaṅgraha gives the description of a most interesting god, named as Nāmasaṅgīti. This description enables the students of iconography to identify a large number of his images that he scattered throughout the Nepal valley and other Buddhist countries. This deity should be distinguished from the Nāmasaṅgīti Mañjuśrī who has already been described as one of the varieties of the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. Like the goddess Prajñāpāramitā who is the embodiment of the Prajñāpāramitā literature, Nāmasaṅgīti also seems to be the deification of the Nāmasaṅgīti literature of the Buddhists. Pandit Amṛtānanda characterises Nāmasaṅgīti as a Buddha but from the description and the illustration it would appear that he is a Bodhisattva. The elaborate ornaments, the fierce symbol of Khaṭvāṅga as also other Bodhisattva symbols do not befit a Buddha. Although the parental Dhyāni Buddha of Nāmasaṅgīti is not expressly mentioned in the description of Amṛtānanda, he is brought here under Vairocana because of his white colour.