Elements of Buddhist Iconography c4.56.2

c4.56.2

Others, myself included, have opposed this view, and not without justification inasmuch as the formula is certainly of pre-Buddhist origin, and because what is represented is certainly not the birth of Siddhārtha, but rather Śrī-Lakṣmī herself, at once Earth-Lotus and Mother-Earth personified, Universal Mother, Mother Nature, Aditi, Māyā,⁴⁴ the magical ground or substance of existence, fertilized by heavenly showers.⁴⁵ It must not be overlooked, too, that *Jātaka*, I, p. 53, affirms that when the Bodhisattva was born, “two streams of water came down from the sky (*ākāsato dve udakadhārā nikkhamitvā*) and refreshed the bodies of the Bodhisattva and his mother;” 46 in this sense it may be legitimate to say that these are virtually Buddha nativities, inasmuch as they represent Her who is the Mother of all Existence, and so preëminently of the Buddha, when he is considered not as the man Siddhârtha, but as Universal Man, in whom all things are lively imaged, Ādityabandhu and Sūryavamśin, “Kinsman of the Supernal-Sun” and “Of the Solar Race,” and as Māyā-maya, “magically-natured.” 47 It can scarcely have been an accident that Siddhârtha’s mortal mother’s name was Māyā-devī, “Lady Māyā.” 48 Siddhârtha’s birth from his mother’s side is anticipated in Rg Veda, IV, 18, 1–2, where in connection with Indra’s birth from Aditi we find . . . tiraścatā pārśvān nir gamāni, “I will go forth traversely, from the side”; a lateral procession is mentioned in several other passages, e. g.