The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c17.s5: 5. Mahāsāhasrapramardani
The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sādhanamālā and Other Cognate Tāntric Texts of Rituals c17.s5
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5. Mahāsāhasrapramardani
c17.s5.1
Colour—White Arms—Six
c17.s5.2
Mahāsāhasrapramardani is another goddess of the Pañcarakṣā group, and is assigned to Vairocana exactly in the same way as Mahāsītavatī and Mahāmantrānusāriṇī are affiliated respectively to Amitābha and Akṣobhya. Her form is different from that in which she is worshipped in the Pañcarakṣā Maṇḍala. Here the Dhyāna describes her form in the following terms :
c17.s5.3
“Mahāsāhasrapramardanīṁ ātmānaṁ dhyāyāt ; śuklāṁ ekamukhīṁ ṣaḍbhujāṁ ; dakṣiṇatribhujeṣu khaḍgabāṇavaradamudrāḥ vāmatribhujeṣu dhanuḥpāśaparaśavaḥ ; vicitrālaṅkāradharāṁ rūpayauvanaśṛṅgāravatīṁ Vairocanakirīṭayuktāṁ padmacandrāsanaprabhām”. Sādhanamālā, p. 400
c17.s5.4
"The worshipper should conceive himself as Mahāsāhasrapramardani who is of white complexion, one-faced and six-armed. She carries in her three right hands the sword, the arrow and the Varada pose, and in the three left the bow, the noose and the Paraśu. She is decked in variegated ornaments, is young and beautiful, displays the sentiment of amour, bears the figure of Vairocana on her crown, sits on the moon over a lotus, and is radiant like the moon".
c17.s5.5
Images of this deity are found in Tibet ¹ and China ².
c17.s5.6
¹ Gordon : ITL, p. 76
c17.s5.7
² Clark : TLP, II, p 275
Cites (1)
- Sādhanamālā — Sanskrit