Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c75.s3.17

v2.c75.s3.17

The third stage that is the stage of complete emergence of the pantheon begins from the times of Indrabhūti (750 A.D ), the king of Uddiyana, who made Uddiyana (Orissa) the main centre of Vajrayāna-Tantra-yāna. His work Jñānasiddhi gives probably the first account of the origin of the five Dhyānī Buddhas and their Śaktis along with a number of deities as emanating from them. Later on the conception of Ādi Buddha also originated by the first half of the 10th century at Nalanda. He was regarded as the primordial Buddha from whom the five Dhyānī Buddhas were said to have taken their origin. Homage to Ādi Buddha is conceived in shape of flame, which the priests of Nepal considered eternal, self-born and self-existent. It is said in the Svayam-bhū-purāṇa, the scripture of the Kālacakrayāna (a later development of Vajrayāna) that Ādi Buddha first manifested himself in Nepal in the shape of a flame of fire and Mañjuśrī is said to have erected a temple over it in order to preserve the flame. This temple is known as the Svayambhū Caitya.