The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c22.1

c22.1

It is not a fact that Hindu gods were unknown in the Buddhist pantheon or that the Buddhist pantheon wholly consisted of Buddhist gods. It is already well-known that several Hindu gods especially Sarasvatī and Gaṇapati were given independent forms as principal gods in the Sādhanas, besides a large number as companion deities or as Vāhanas or vehicles of important Buddhist deities. They were also given humiliating roles to be trampled upon by angry Buddhist gods. A perusal of the Niṣpannayogāvalī and especially the Dharmadhātuvāgīśvara Maṇḍala will show what a large number of Hindu deities was incorporated in the Maṇḍala, and how this large number was tackled intelligently and fitted into the scheme of the Buddhist Maṇḍalas. How these Hindu gods were classified and how directions and colours were assigned to them, and how they were put under a Dhyāni Buddha family, represent a study interesting to the extreme. It is necessary to make a brief reference to this aspect of Buddhist Iconography. That these Hindu deities were fully converted to Buddhist Faith is also evidenced by the fact that a large number of their statuettes is actually found in the purely Buddhist atmosphere of China in the Chinese collection of statuettes at Peiping. The collection although exists in China, its spirit is perfectly Indian, as image after image follows the description given either in the Niṣpannayogāvalī or in the Sādhanamālā.