The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c9.s6: Three Celebrated Stūpas of Nepal

The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sādhanamālā and Other Cognate Tāntric Texts of Rituals c9.s6

Language: English

Three Celebrated Stūpas of Nepal

was contemporaneous with the reign of the Pāla kings of Bengal and lasted till the Muhammadan conquest of Bihar and Bengal in the beginning of the thirteenth century A. D. In the Magadha school are to be found a definite evidence of the existence of a well classified pantheon as conceived in Vajrayāna Buddhism. In most of the images there are figures of five Dhyāni Buddhas on the halo round the head of the principal deity, as also others with miniature figures of Dhyāni Buddhas on the crown to indicate the origin of the deity installed. Again, unlike the Mathura and Gandhara schools there is a distinct dearth of Buddha images in later schools of art, and even when he is represented, he takes the semi-mythical form of Vajrāsana being flanked by Avalokiteśvara and Maitreya on two sides. In the Magadha school therefore Buddha lost his original importance and became similar to the Dhyāni Buddha Akṣobhya as is evident from the numerous Sādhanas dedicated to the worship of Vajrāsana Buddha with the earth touching signal. The Bodhisattva images are also not so stereotyped as they are found either in Gandhara or in Mathura. The Magadha school is characterised by its wide variety of images of gods and goddesses and this will be apparent to any visitor who visits the museums at Sarnath, Nālandā, Patna, or even at Calcutta, and takes a round in the extensive ruins of the Odantapuri Vihāra (Modern Bihar) on the Bakhtiyarpur Bihar Light Railway. The same is the case with the ruins of Gaya, Kurkihar, Sahet-Mahet and Kasia. At Sarnath, the contents of the museum are rich with such interesting and symbolic images as Ṣaḍakṣarī Lokeśvara, Ucchuṣma Jambhala, Mañjuśrī, Tārā, Vasudhārā, Mārīcī, all the Five Dhyāni Buddhas, Vajrasattva the sixth Dhyāni Buddha and numerous others belonging to the Vajrayāna pantheon. Nālandā images are enriched with the same deities as are found in Sarnath.

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The Bengal school which is contemporaneous with the Magadha school is distinguished by the high class of art it developed and for its beauty of execution. Its flourishing period ranged from the 10th century till the conquest of Bengal by the Muhammadans. Many of the specimens of the Bengal school are preserved in the museums at Calcutta, Dacca, Rajshahi, and the Vangiya Sahitya Parishad, and a large number of them are scattered about in the Pargana Vikrampur and in the districts of Dinajpur, Rajshahi, Birbhum and Comilla. In this school many interesting and unique specimens of images belonging to Tāntric Buddhism are met with. From the above it becomes clear that the artists were acquainted with the descriptions of deities as given in the Sādhana literature, because the images and the Dhyānas as given in the Sādhana coincide most remarkably. In this school are to be found such images as Heruka, Vasudhārā, Jambhala, Arapacana, Khasarpaṇa, Parṇaśabarī, Siṃhanāda, Mañjuvara, Aparājitā, Mahāpratisarā, Nairātmā, Ṣaḍakṣarī Lokeśvara, Mahāśrī Tārā, Khadiravanī Tārā along with many others too numerous to mention. Scholars desirous of having more information on the subject are recommended to refer to the excellent work of Dr. N. K. Bhattasali, entitled, *The Iconography of Buddhist and Brhamanical Sculptures in the Dacca Museum* where incidentally images discovered elsewhere in Eastern Bengal have also been treated. Another monumental work on the subject is R. D. Banerji's *Eastern Indian School of Mediæval Sculpture*, published by the Archæological Department of the Government of India.

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The images of Buddhist deities found at Ajanta, Ellora and the cave temples of Western India show signs of immature Tantra and may be assigned to a period before the 7th century A. D. although some of the paintings and sculptures are of long antiquity. It does not seem that the Tantras were very popular with the Buddhists of Western India or that they were influenced by the teachings of the Tantra which was mainly a product of Eastern India. Had it not been so, the cave temples would have at least exhibited some of the Tāntric deities such as Mañjuśrī, Tārā, Khasarpaṇa, Jambhala, Prajñāpāramitā and others. The Javanese art seems to have been profoundly influenced by the Bengal school, and the images of gods and goddesses as found in the Borobudur temple show that they were acquainted with many deities of the Vajrayāna pantheon As Vajrayāna was mainly a product of Bengal it is probable that colonists carried their art and religion to Java and Indonesia by the sea route, probably from the sea-port at Tāmralipti or from Chittagong and Orissa. The Prajñāpāramitā image produced in the Javanese school has been acclaimed as one of the finest specimens of eastern art, ancient or modern.

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After the destruction of Buddhism from India the priests of the celebrated monasteries of Bengal and Magadha who could save their heads from the hostile sword of the Muhammadans, fled to Nepal which is protected on all sides by the mighty walls of the Himalayan mountains, and took refuge in that country, and thus kept the torch of Buddhism still burning there. The Bengal school of art which was carried by the priests was soon modified into a typical Nepalese art when it came in contact with the native artists, and thus became stereotyped. But after the 18th century it became debased and crude. The general impression of the visitor who inspects the numerous monasteries in Nepal which are the repositories of Buddhist images of diverse kinds, is that the dreamy sweetness and the sublime beauty THE BUDDHIST TRIAD.

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Fig. 9 Dharma.

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Fig. 10 Buddha.

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Fig. 11 Saṅgha.

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of the Bengal school could not be preserved in Nepal, although earlier specimens of really good art are not at all wanting in the Nepal school. The followers of Vajrayāna who went to Nepal in order to make sure of their existence converted a good many Newars of the land to Buddhism and carved out innumerable images of gods and goddesses in stone, metal or wood, so much so, that a student of iconography is overwhelmed at their wealth and variety. It is however curious to note that the origin of almost all the monasteries in Kathmandu, Bhatgaon, and Lalitapattan dates from the 13th century, which shows unmistakably that these monasteries were founded almost immediately after the Muhammadan conquest by the refugees fleeing from Eastern India.

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The cumulative evidence of art, history, and literature leads one to believe that the pantheon of the Northern Buddhists was not widely known before the 7th century A. D. nor was the underlying philosophy, which may warrant the formation of a pantheon, well developed before that time, although the origin of it is definitely earlier. This may be explained by the fact that the Guhyasamāja which for the first time inculcated the doctrine of the five Dhyāni Buddhas and their families, was composed in secret and transmitted in an occult manner for about three hundred years. This is one of the many reasons why neither the Guhyasamāja Tantra nor the Dhyāni Buddhas nor the varied pantheon of Vajrayāna could be widely known. It is only in the Sādhana of Asaṅga as included in the Sādhanamālā a definite reference to the five Dhyāni Buddhas and their families is to be met with, and for that reason it is not improbable to connect Asaṅga with the introduction of the very Guhyasamāja Tantra itself. The subsequent writers only got a glimpse of what filtered through the secret but very popular mystic organisations. After the 7th century secrecy was no longer necessary, as the principles of Vajrayāna were then fully established and widely spread through the teachings and mystic songs of the Siddhas and Mahāsiddhas. The beautiful images produced by the priests and artists made the teachings doubly attractive. Great men came forward to advocate the cause of Vajrayāna. Chairs for the study and teaching of Tantras were founded in the different and famous centres of learning such as Nālandā, Odantapuri, Vikramaśīla and Jagaddala. Eminent scholars like Śāntarakṣita worked as professors of Tantra in the world famous university of Nālandā.

Cites (2)

Sādhanamālā — Sanskrit
Guhyasamājatantra — Sanskrit