The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c23.15

c23.15

It has been stated in the Sādhanamālā that a single deity may take any colour according to the particular Tāntric rite in which he is invoked. For instance, in the Śāntikavidhi or propitiatory rite the god takes the white or the yellow colour. In Pauṣṭikavidhi or protective rite the yellow colour is taken by the deity. Similarly, in Vaśyavidhi (bewitching) and Ākarṣaṇa (attraction) he may take yellow, green or red colour. In Ucāṭana (total destruction) and in Māraṇa (killing) the god is generally blue. It may be pointed out here that the word ‘Kṛṣṇa’ in the Sādhanamālā always signifies the blue colour, and not black. Buddhist gods are rarely black, not because the Buddhists had no perception of the black colour, but because there seems to have been some prejudice against using the black colour in the paintings of gods. It may further be pointed out that whenever a deity gets the blue colour his appearance becomes terrible with protruding teeth and tongue, garland of severed heads, ornaments of snakes and the garment of tiger-skin.