Elements of Buddhist Iconography c5.35

c5.35

When the throne is alternatively a *paryaṅka* and thought of as the *vajrāsana*, a condition corresponding to Hsüan-tsang’s conception, the supporting axis is shown as extended downwards into the Land of Gold, and there supported by a Guhyaka Yakṣa.¹³⁷ An admirable illustration of this can be cited in the case of the pedestal (Fig. 40) of the Yakushi Buddha of the Kondo, a Japanese work of the eighth century (*Japanese Temples and Their Treasures*, Pl. 206: *Yakushiji Okagami*, II, Tokyo, 1922). Here the flat surface of the rectangular throne is an earth-plane (*vasudhā-tala*), the solid body of the pedestal corresponding to the Land of Gold. On the front side of the pedestal is represented a vertical axis extending downwards to the lower margin of the block, where it is supported by a crouching Yakṣa Atlant.¹³⁸ This representation is exactly analogous to that of the Guḍimallam liṅgam (Fig. 42 and my *History*, Fig. 66), nor need the point be labored here that the Śiva liṅgam, established in the Land of Gold (Hāṭaka) and extending thence to Heaven above, represents another aspect of the one axis of the Universe. The ornamental form of the Yakushi axis recalls that of the Dharmacakra pillars represented at Amarāvatī (e. g. my *History*, Fig. 136, right and left), and shows clearly the jointed structure of the axis. On the side of the Yakushi pedestal (Fig. 41), right and left of the axis, and as though to emphasize the character of the central support-ing Atlant Yakṣa, are other figures of the same type, crouching within and peering out of caverns, which are their chambers in the bowels of the earth; similar representations are to be seen on the other faces of the pedestal. Below the level representing the base of the Land of Gold are four strata representing the Waters; on the uppermost of these, centrally on each side, are theriomorphic emblems of the Four Quarters, those on the front side being a tortoise and a snake, representing the North (the Buddha therefore "is" in the North and faces South); the lowest stratum consists of a lotus-petal moulding, which may here be understood to mean the nethermost Waters as the ultimate "ground" of all that is above them and established in them.