The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c18.s10: 10. Vajraśṛṅkhalā

The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sādhanamālā and Other Cognate Tāntric Texts of Rituals c18.s10

Language: English

10. Vajraśṛṅkhalā

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Colour—Green Faces—Three Arms—Eight Āsana—Lalita Symbol—Chain

Three Sādhanas in the Sādhanamālā are devoted to the worship of Vajraśṛnkhalā. Her colour is green, and as she emanates from Amoghasiddi she bears the image of that Dhyāni Buddha on the crown. "Śṛnkhala" means a chain, and as the goddess carries a chain marked with a Vajra, she is called Vajraśṛnkhalā. The chain, therefore, is her characteristic sign and should be paid particular attention to, in identifying her images, if ever, they come to light. She may be compared with Vajrasphoṭā another chain-bearing deity. One of the Dhyānas describes her form in the following manner :

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"Haritām trimukhām aṣṭabhujām; prathamamukhaṃ īṣaddhāsarasam; dakṣiṇaṃ kapilaṃ kapilalocanaṃ ca ; vāmaṃ raktaṃ bhṛkuṭidaṃṣṭrā-karālaṃ ; dakṣiṇeṣu catuḥkareṣu abhaya-vajra-śṛnkhala-śaradharām ; vāmacatuḥkaraiḥ rudhirapūrṇakapāla-tarjanī-pāśa-cāpadharām ; lalitākṣepāsanasthām, mārjjāracarmottarīyām, Amoghasiddhibhūṣito'dhvapiṅgalakeṣāṃ vicintya...

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Vajraśṛnkhalā-Sādhanam." Sādhanamālā, p. 414.

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"The worshipper should visualise himself as (Vajraśṛnkhalā) of green complexion, with three faces and eight arms. Her first face is gently smiling, right face is of brown colour with brown eyes, and the left is of red colour and appears terrible with contortions of the brows and bare fangs. She shows in the four right hands the Abhaya pose, the Vajra, the Vajraśṛnkhalā and the arrow, and in the four left, the Kapāla full of blood, the Tarjanī, the noose and the bow. She sits in the Lalita attitude, has a scarf of cat's skin, and her brown hair rises upwards and is decorated with the image of Amoghasiddhi. Thus meditating."

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Vajraśṛnkhalā may, according to the Sādhanas, have another form¹ with three faces and six arms, in which case she carries the Vajra, the Vajraśṛnkhalā and the arrow in the three right hands; and the Tarjanī, the noose and the bow in the three left hands. The illustration (Fig. 175) shows this form of the goddess as drawn by the native Citrakāras of Nepal. She is represented in China².

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¹ Sādhana No. 207 in the Sādhanamālā, p. 413.

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² Clark : TLP, II, pp. 196, 311.

Cites (1)

Sādhanamālā — Sanskrit