Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c75.s3.15

v2.c75.s3.15

**Buddhist Pantheon.** This brings us to the Buddhist Pantheon both in the realm of art as well as in that of the literature. The rise of the Pantheon always presupposes image-worship, both aniconic and iconic. We shall have an occasion to see its representation in art in the last and so here we have to confine ourselve with the rise of the pantheon in literature and other accounts. Much of the information for reconstructing a chronological rise of the Pantheon is gathered from the accounts of the Chinese travellers like Hiuen Thsang and It-sing. We know Buddhism in its original shape, was too simple a religion to accomodate image-worship. Buddha was definitely against it. After his death, deification started first with the symbolic objects like Stūpas and Triśaraṇas, the former has been an object of adoration even just after the life-time of Buddha. Similar is the case with the three jewels, which came to be represented, later, both in symbolic and human form. Again the rise of Buddhist pantheon is synchronous with the rise of Mahāyānism and its offshoots of development. Indrabhūti’s time (cf. 700-750 A.D.) is regarded as the emergance of a full-fledged Buddhist pantheon, the germination of which no doubt goes back a few centuries earlier—vide the work of Aśvoghoṣa, Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva. The Sukhāvatī-Vyūha, or Amitāyus-Sūtra which was translated into Chinese in the 2nd century, mentions Amitābha Bodhisattva and Avalokiteśvara and in its smaller recenssion of the 4th century, Akṣobhya as a Tathāgata and Mañjuśrī as a Boddhisattva are also mentioned. In the accounts of the Chinese travellers beside these, other important names also come to light—Maitreya (Fa-Hien); Hārītī, Kṣitigarbha, Padmapāṇi, Vaiśravaṇa, Śākya Buddha, Śākya Bodhisattava, Yama along with many Buddhist saints like Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna, Asaṅga, Sumedha and others as deified Bodhisattvas and a good many previous Buddhas (Hiuen-Thsang) ; and Caturmahārājikas and several Hindu gods (It-sing).