The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c21.1

c21.1

In the Niṣpannayogāvalī of Abhyākara Gupta mention is made of a number of deities who are designated here, for the sake of convenience, as philosophical deities. In Buddhism, the Twelve Pāramitās are considered to be the perfections of cardinal virtues which entitle one to Buddhahood. They are deified in human form with colour, and weapons. Similar is the case with the others, such as the Twelve Vaśitās or spritual disciplines, the Twelve Bhūmis or the successive spiritual spheres, the Twelve Dhāriṇīs or sacred chain of words, the Four Pratisamvits or the four branches of logical analysis. All these belong to the realm of philosophy and abstract ideas and, therefore, they are brought together here under a separate chapter as a matter of logical necessity.