The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c9.s6.4

c9.s6.4

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.