Elements of Buddhist Iconography c6.52

c6.52

abode of all living things (sarva-jīva-nikāya) where the Ruling Power (svarāj) himself of himself came to be (svayam abhūt, cf. "svayambhū = Brahmā)." It may be observed that svayambhū, characterizing Prajāpati as demiurge, corresponds to the conception of Agni as "self-lighted" (agninā agniḥ samidhyate, Ṛg Veda, I, 12, 6): and this idea in the Ṛg Veda, where Agni is typically punar punar jayamānaḥ, "constantly reborn," underlies the Buddhist comparisons of rebirth as the lighting of one flame by another without "individual" identity of the substance enflamed.