The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c2.7

c2.7

The second edition has been thoroughly revised and greatly enlarged. New chapters have been incorporated, old chapters have been redistributed. Many pictures have been deleted, and many new ones have been included in order to make the study as up-to-date as possible. In 1924, when the first edition was published, I could only see the material side of the problem. But with the availability of fresh material, the other side, namely the psychic side, also became apparent. Evidence of this change will be found in the introduction which is almost wholly re-written, as also in other chapters, notably on the Dhyāni Buddhas. I offer an explanation here lest my readers receive a shock while reading this book in a second edition. I may further point out that repetitions in a book of this kind can hardly be avoided, and deities have been repeated at different places for different purposes and in different contexts. My critics of the first edition will also notice how irregularities pointed out by them have been regularised in the second edition