History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.307

v7.c92.307

The Buddhist tantras also make much of mandalas. In the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa mandalas are described with special directions for painting them. The Guhyasamājatantra speaks of a mandala of 16 cubits with a cakra inside. Vide Prof. G. Tucci's 'Indo-Tibetica' vol. IV part I (Rome, 1941) which gives tables containing mandalas and A. Getty's 'The Gods of Northern Buddhism' (1908) Plate XVI for a mandala of nine elements, and 'Contributions to the study of mandala and mudrā' by Erik Haarh pp. 57-91 of vol XXIII. Nos. 1 and 2 (1958) of Acta Orientalia of the Oriental Societies of Denmark, Norway &c. in which at the end there are photographs of about 100 hand poses (mudrās). The Nispannayogāvali (G. O. S.) of Abhayākaragupta, a contemporary of Rāmapāla, king of Bengal (1084-1130 A. D.), describes 26 mandalas in 26 chapters, each mandala having a central deity and other minor Buddhist divinities, sometimes more than one hundred in number.¹⁸⁵⁸