Reading section 3

Tara is a goddess of north India, Nepal and the Lamaist Church and almost unknown in China and Japan. Her name means she who causes to cross, that is who saves, life and its troubles being by a common metaphor described as a sea. Tara also means a star and in Puranic mythology is the name given to the mother of Buddha, the planet Mercury. Whether the name was first used by Buddhists or Brahmans is unknown, but after the seventh century there was a decided tendency to give Tara the epithets bestowed on the Saktis of Siva and assimilate her to those goddesses. Thus in the list of her 108 names[39] she is described among other more amiable attributes as terrible, furious, the slayer of evil beings, the destroyer, and Kali: also as carrying skulls and being the mother of the Vedas. Here we have if not the borrowing by Buddhists of a Saiva deity, at least the grafting of Saiva conceptions on a Bodhisattva.

The second great Bodhisattva Manjusri[40] has other similar names, such as Manjunatha and Manjughosha, the word Manju meaning sweet or pleasant. He is also Vagisvara, the Lord of Speech, and Kumarabhuta, the Prince, which possibly implies that he is the Buddha's eldest son, charged with the government under his direction. He has much the same literary history as Avalokita, not being mentioned in the Pali Canon nor in the earlier Sanskrit works such as the Lalita-vistara and Divyavadana. But his name occurs in the Sukhavati-vyuha: he is the principal interlocutor in the Lankavatara sutra and is extolled in the Ratna-karandaka-vyuha-sutra.[41] In the greater part of the Lotus he is the principal Bodhisattva and instructs Maitreya, because, though his youth is eternal, he has known many Buddhas through innumerable ages. The Lotus[42] also recounts how he visited the depths of the sea and converted the inhabitants thereof and how the Lord taught him what are the duties of a Bodhisattva after the Buddha has entered finally into Nirvana. As a rule he has no consort and appears as a male Athene, all intellect and chastity, but sometimes Lakshmi or Sarasvati or both are described as his consorts.[43]

His worship prevailed not only in India but in Nepal, Tibet, China, Japan and Java. Fa-Hsien states that he was honoured in Central India, and Hsuean Chuang that there were stupas dedicated to him at Muttra.[44] He is also said to have been incarnate in Atisa, the Tibetan reformer, and in Vairocana who introduced Buddhism to Khotan, but, great as is his benevolence, he is not so much the helper of human beings, which is Avalokita's special function, as the personification of thought, knowledge, and meditation. It is for this that he has in his hands the sword of knowledge and a book. A beautiful figure from Java bearing these emblems is in the Berlin Museum.[45] Miniatures represent him as of a yellow colour with the hands (when they do not carry emblems) set in the position known as teaching the law.[46] Other signs which distinguish his images are the blue lotus and the lion on which he sits.

An interesting fact about Manjusri is his association with China,[47] not only in Chinese but in late Indian legends. The mountain Wu-t'ai-shan in the province of Shan-si is sacred to him and is covered with temples erected in his honour.[48] The name (mountain of five terraces) is rendered in Sanskrit as Pancasirsha, or Pancasikha, and occurs both in the Svayambhu Purana and in the text appended to miniatures representing Manjusri. The principal temple is said to have been erected between 471 and 500 A.D. I have not seen any statement that the locality was sacred in pre-Buddhist times, but it was probably regarded as the haunt of deities, one of whom--perhaps some spirit of divination--was identified with the wise Manjusri. It is possible that during the various inroads of Graeco-Bactrians, Yueeh-Chih, and other Central Asian tribes into India, Manjusri was somehow imported into the pantheon of the Mahayana from China or Central Asia, and he has, especially in the earlier descriptions, a certain pure and abstract quality which recalls the Amesha-Spentas of Persia. But still his attributes are Indian, and there is little positive evidence of a foreign origin. I-Ching is the first to tell us that the Hindus believed he came from China.[49] Hsuean Chuang does not mention this belief, and probably did not hear of it, for it is an interesting detail which no one writing for a Chinese audience would have omitted. We may therefore suppose that the idea arose in India about 650 A.D. By that date the temples of Wu-t'ai-Shan would have had time to become celebrated, and the visits paid to India by distinguished Chinese Buddhists would be likely to create the impression that China was a centre of the faith and frequented by Bodhisattvas.[50] We hear that Vajrabodhi (about 700) and Prajna (782) both went to China to adore Manjusri. In 824 a Tibetan envoy arrived at the Chinese Court to ask for an image of Manjusri, and later the Grand Lamas officially recognized that he was incarnate in the Emperor.[51] Another legend relates that Manjusri came from Wu-t'ai-Shan to adore a miraculous lotus[52] that appeared on the lake which then filled Nepal. With a blow of his sword he cleft the mountain barrier and thus drained the valley and introduced civilization. There may be hidden in this some tradition of the introduction of culture into Nepal but the Nepalese legends are late and in their collected form do not go back beyond the sixteenth century.

After Avalokita and Manjusri the most important Bodhisattva is Maitreya,[53] also called Ajita or unconquered, who is the only one recognized by the Pali Canon.[54] This is because he does not stand on the same footing as the others. They are superhuman in their origin as well as in their career, whereas Maitreya is simply a being who like Gotama has lived innumerable lives and ultimately made himself worthy of Buddhahood which he awaits in heaven. There is no reason to doubt that Gotama regarded himself as one in a series of Buddhas: the Pali scriptures relate that he mentioned his predecessors by name, and also spoke of unnumbered Buddhas to come.[55] Nevertheless Maitreya or Metteyya is rarely mentioned in the Pali Canon.[56]

He is, however, frequently alluded to in the exegetical Pali literature, in the Anagata-vamsa and in the earlier Sanskrit works such as the Lalita-vistara, the Divyavadana and Mahavastu. In the Lotus he plays a prominent part, but still is subordinate to Manjusri. Ultimately he was eclipsed by the two great Bodhisattvas but in the early centuries of our era he received much respect. His images are frequent in all parts of the Buddhist world: he was believed to watch over the propagation of the Faith,[57] and to have made special revelations to Asanga.[58] In paintings he is usually of a golden colour: his statues, which are often gigantic, show him standing or sitting in the European fashion and not cross-legged. He appears to be represented in the earliest Gandharan sculptures and there was a famous image of him in Udyana of which Fa-Hsien (399-414 A.D.) speaks as if it were already ancient.[59] Hsuean Chuang describes it as well as a stupa erected[60] to commemorate Sakyamuni's prediction that Maitreya would be his successor. On attaining Buddhahood he will become lord of a terrestrial paradise and hold three assemblies under a dragon flower tree,[61] at which all who have been good Buddhists in previous births will become Arhats. I-Ching speaks of meditating on the advent of Maitreya in language like that which Christian piety uses of the second coming of Christ and concludes a poem which is incorporated in his work with the aspiration "Deep as the depth of a lake be my pure and calm meditation. Let me look for the first meeting under the Tree of the Dragon Flower when I hear the deep rippling voice of the Buddha Maitreya."[62] But messianic ideas were not much developed in either Buddhism or Hinduism and perhaps the figures of both Maitreya and Kalki owe something to Persian legends about Saoshyant the Saviour.

The other Bodhisattvas, though lauded in special treatises, have left little impression on Indian Buddhism and have obtained in the Far East most of whatever importance they possess. The makers of images and miniatures assign to each his proper shape and colour, but when we read about them we feel that we are dealing not with the objects of real worship or even the products of a lively imagination, but with names and figures which have a value for picturesque but conventional art.

Among the best known is Samantabhadra, the all gracious,[63] who is still a popular deity in Tibet and the patron saint of the sacred mountain Omei in China, with which he is associated as Manjusri with Wu-tai-shan. He is represented as green and riding on an elephant. In Indian Buddhism he has a moderately prominent position. He is mentioned in the Dharmasangraha and in one chapter of the Lotus he is charged with the special duty of protecting those who follow the law. But the Chinese pilgrims do not mention his worship.

Mahasthamaprapta[64] is a somewhat similar figure. A chapter of the Lotus (XIX) is dedicated to him without however giving any clear idea of his personality and he is extolled in several descriptions of Sukhavati or Paradise, especially in the Amitayurdhyana-sutra. Together with Amitabha and Avalokita he forms a triad who rule this Happy Land and are often represented by three images in Chinese temples.

Vajrapani is mentioned in many lists of Bodhisattvas (_e.g._ in the Dharmasangraha) but is of somewhat doubtful position as Hsuean Chuang calls him a deva.[65] Historically his recognition as a Bodhisattva is interesting for he is merely Indra transformed into a Buddhist. The mysterious personages called Vajradhara and Vajrasattva, who in later times are even identified with the original Buddha spirit, are further developments of Vajrapani. He owes his elevation to the fact that _Vajra_, originally meaning simply thunderbolt, came to be used as a mystical expression for the highest truth.

More important than these is Kshitigarbha, Ti-tsang or Jizo[66] who in China and Japan ranks second only to Kuan-yin. Visser has consecrated to him an interesting monograph[67] which shows what strange changes and chances may attend spirits and how ideal figures may alter as century after century they travel from land to land. We know little about the origin of Kshitigarbha. The name seems to mean Earth-womb and he has a shadowy counterpart in Akasagarbha, a similar deity of the air, who it seems never had a hold on human hearts. The Earth is generally personified as a goddess[68] and Kshitigarbha has some slight feminine traits, though on the whole decidedly masculine. The stories of his previous births relate how he was twice a woman: in Japan he was identified with the mountain goddess of Kamado, and he helps women in labour, a boon generally accorded by goddesses. In the pantheon of India he played an inconspicuous part,[69] though reckoned one of the eight great Bodhisattvas, but met with more general esteem in Turkestan, where he began to collect the attributes afterwards defined in the Far East. It is there that his history and transformations become clear.

He is primarily a deity of the nether world, but like Amitabha and Avalokita he made a vow to help all living creatures and specially to deliver them from hell. The Taoists pictured hell as divided into ten departments ruled over by as many kings, and Chinese fancy made Ti-tsang the superintendent of these functionaries. He thus becomes not so much a Saviour as the kindly superintendent of a prison who preaches to the inmates and willingly procures their release. Then we hear of six Ti-tsangs, corresponding to the six worlds of sentient beings, the gracious spirit being supposed to multiply his personality in order to minister to the wants of all. He is often represented as a monk, staff in hand and with shaven head. The origin of this guise is not clear and it perhaps refers to his previous births. But in the eighth century a monk of Chiu Hua[70] was regarded as an incarnation of Ti-tsang and after death his body was gilded and enshrined as an object of worship. In later times the Bodhisattva was confused with the incarnation, in the same way as the portly figure of Pu-tai, commonly known as the laughing Buddha, has been substituted for Maitreya in Chinese iconography.

In Japan the cult of the six Jizos became very popular. They were regarded as the deities of roads[71] and their effigies ultimately superseded the ancient phallic gods of the crossways. In this martial country the Bodhisattva assumed yet another character as Shogun Jizo, a militant priest riding on horseback[72] and wearing a helmet who became the patron saint of warriors and was even identified with the Japanese war god, Hachiman. Until the seventeenth century Jizo was worshipped principally by soldiers and priests, but subsequently his cult spread among all classes and in all districts. His benevolent activities as a guide and saviour were more and more emphasized: he heals sickness, he lengthens life, he leads to heaven, he saves from hell: he even suffers as a substitute in hell and is the special protector of the souls of children amid the perils of the underworld. Though this modern figure of Jizo is wrought with ancient materials, it is in the main a work of Japanese sentiment.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: In dealing with the Mahayanists, I use the expression Sakyamuni in preference to Gotama. It is their own title for the teacher and it seems incongruous to use the purely human name of Gotama in describing doctrines which represent him as superhuman.]

[Footnote 6: But Kings Hsin-byu-shin of Burma and Sri Suryavamsa Rama of Siam have left inscriptions recording their desire to become Buddhas. See my chapters on Burma and Siam below. Mahayanist ideas may easily have entered these countries from China, but even in Ceylon the idea of becoming a Buddha or Bodhisattva is not unknown. See _Manual of a Mystic_ (P.T.S. 1916), pp. xviii and 140.]

[Footnote 7: _E.g._ in Itivuttakam 75, there is a description of the man who is like a drought and gives nothing, the man who is like rain in a certain district and the man who is Sabbabhutanukampako, compassionate to all creatures, and like rain falling everywhere. Similarly _Ib._ 84, and elsewhere, we have descriptions of persons (ordinary disciples as well as Buddhas) who are born for the welfare of gods and men bahujanahitaya, bahujanasukhaya, lokanukampaya, atthaya, hitaya, sukhaya devamanussanam.]

[Footnote 8: Ed. Senart, vol. I. p. 142.]

[Footnote 9: The Bodhicaryavatara was edited by Minayeff, 1889 and also in the _Journal of the Buddhist Text Society_ and the _Bibliotheca Indica_. De la Vallee Poussin published parts of the text and commentary in his _Bouddhisme_ and also a translation in 1907.]

[Footnote 10: The career of the Bodhisattva is also discussed in detail in the Avatamsaka sutra and in works attributed to Nagarjuna and Sthiramati, the Lakshana-vimukta-hridaya-sastra and the Mahayana-dharma-dhatvaviseshata-sastra. I only know of these works as quoted by Teitaro Suzuki.]

[Footnote 11: See Childers, _Pali Dict._ s.v. Patti, Pattianuppadanam and Punno.]

[Footnote 12: It occurs in the Pali Canon, _e.g._ Itivuttakam 100. Tassa me tumhe putta orasa, mukhato jata, dhammaja.]

[Footnote 13: See Sylvain Levi, _Mahayana-sutralankara_: introduction and passim. For much additional information about the Bhumis see De la Vallee Poussin's article "Bodhisattva" in _E.R.E._]

[Footnote 14: Eminent doctors such as Nagarjuna and Asanga are often described as Bodhisattvas just as eminent Hindu teachers, _e.g._ Caitanya, are described as Avataras.]

[Footnote 15: The idea that Arhats may postpone their entry into Nirvana for the good of the world is not unknown to the Pali Canon. According to the Maha Parin-Sutta the Buddha himself might have done so. Legends which cannot be called definitely Mahayanist relate how Pindola and others are to tarry until Maitreya come and how Kasyapa in a less active role awaits him in a cave or tomb, ready to revive at his advent. See _J.A._ 1916, II. pp. 196, 270.]

[Footnote 16: _E.g._ Lotus, chap. I.]

[Footnote 17: De la Vallee Poussin's article "Avalokita" in _E.R.E._ may be consulted.]

[Footnote 18: Lotus, _S.B.E._ XXI. p. 407.]

[Footnote 19: sPyan-ras-gzigs rendered in Mongol by Niduebaer-uedzaekci. The other common Mongol name Ariobalo appears to be a corruption of Aryavalokita.]

[Footnote 20: Meaning apparently the seeing and self-existent one. Cf. Ta-tzu-tsai as a name of Siva.]

[Footnote 21: A maidservant in the drama Malatimadhava is called Avalokita. It is not clear whether it is a feminine form of the divine name or an adjective meaning looked-at, or admirable.]

[Footnote 22: _S.B.E._ XXI. pp. 4 and 406 ff. It was translated in Chinese between A.D. 265 and 316 and chap. XXIV was separately translated between A.D. 384 and 417. See Nanjio, Catalogue Nos. 136, 137, 138.]

[Footnote 23: Hsuean Chuang (Watters, II. 215, 224) relates how an Indian sage recited the Sui-hsin dharani before Kuan-tzu-tsai's image for three years.]

[Footnote 24: As will be noticed from time to time in these pages, the sudden appearance of new deities in Indian literature often seems strange. The fact is that until deities are generally recognized, standard works pay no attention to them.]

[Footnote 25: Watters, vol. II. pp. 228 ff. It is said that Potalaka is also mentioned in the Hwa-yen-ching or Avatamsaka sutra. Tibetan tradition connects it with the Sakya family. See Csoma de Koeroes, Tibetan studies reprinted 1912, pp. 32-34.]

[Footnote 26: Just as the Lankavatara sutra purports to have been delivered at _Lankapura-samudra-malaya-sikhara_ rendered in the Chinese translation as "in the city of Lanka on the summit of the Malaya mountain on the border of the sea."]

[Footnote 27: See Foucher, _Iconographie bouddhique_, 1900, pp. 100, 102.]

[Footnote 28: Varamudra.]

[Footnote 29: These as well as the red colour are attributes of the Hindu deity Brahma.]

[Footnote 30: A temple on the north side of the lake in the Imperial City at Peking contains a gigantic image of him which has literally a thousand heads and a thousand hands. This monstrous figure is a warning against an attempt to represent metaphors literally.]

[Footnote 31: Waddell on the Cult of Avalokita, _J.R.A.S._ 1894, pp. 51 ff. thinks they are not earlier than the fifth century.]

[Footnote 32: See especially Foucher, _Iconographie Bouddhique_, Paris, 1900.]

[Footnote 33: See especially de Blonay, _Etudes pour servir a l'histoire de la deesse bouddhique Tara_, Paris, 1895. Tara continued to be worshipped as a Hindu goddess after Buddhism had disappeared and several works were written in her honour. See Raj. Mitra, _Search for Sk. MSS_. IV. 168, 171, X. 67.]

[Footnote 34: About the time of Hsuean Chuang's travels Sarvajnamitra wrote a hymn to Tara which has been preserved and published by de Blonay, 1894.]

[Footnote 35: Chinese Buddhists say Tara and Kuan-Yin are the same but the difference between them is this. Tara is an Indian and Lamaist goddess _associated_ with Avalokita and in origin analogous to the Saktis of Tantrism. Kuan-yin is a female form of Avalokita who can assume all shapes. The original Kuan-yin was a male deity: male Kuan-yins are not unknown in China and are said to be the rule in Korea. But Tara and Kuan-yin may justly be described as the same in so far as they are attempts to embody the idea of divine pity in a Madonna.]

[Footnote 36: But many scholars think that the formula Om manipadme hum, which is supposed to be addressed to Avalokita, is really an invocation to a form of Sakti called Manipadma. A Nepalese inscription says that "The Saktas call him Sakti" (_E.R.E._ vol. II. p. 260 and _J.A._ IX. 192), but this may be merely a way of saying that he is identical with the great gods of all sects.]

[Footnote 37: Harlez, _Livre des esprits et des immortels_, p. 195, and Dore, _Recherches sur les superstitions en Chine_, pp. 94-138.]

[Footnote 38: See Fenollosa, _Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art_ I. pp. 105 and 124; Johnston, _Buddhist China_, 275 ff. Several Chinese deities appear to be of uncertain or varying sex. Thus Chun-ti is sometimes described as a deified Chinese General and sometimes identified with the Indian goddess Marici. Yue-ti, generally masculine, is sometimes feminine. See Dore, _l.c._ 212. Still more strangely the Patriarch Asvaghosha (Ma Ming) is represented by a female figure. On the other hand the monk Ta Sheng (c. 705 A.D.) is said to have been an incarnation of the female Kuan Yin. Manjusri is said to be worshipped in Nepal sometimes as a male, sometimes as a female. See Bendall and Haraprasad, _Nepalese MSS_. p. lxvii.]

[Footnote 39: de Blonay, _l.c._ pp. 48-57.]

[Footnote 40: Chinese, Man-chu-shih-li, or Wen-shu; Japanese, Monju; Tibetan, hJam-pahi-dbyans (pronounced Jam-yang). Manju is good Sanskrit, but it must be confessed that the name has a Central-Asian ring.]

[Footnote 41: Translated into Chinese 270 A.D.]

[Footnote 42: Chaps. XI. and XIII.]

[Footnote 43: A special work Manjusrivikridita (Nanjio, 184, 185) translated into Chinese 313 A.D. is quoted as describing Manjusri's transformations and exploits.]

[Footnote 44: Hsuean Chuang also relates how he assisted a philosopher called Ch'en-na (=Dinnaga) and bade him study Mahayanist books.]

[Footnote 45: It is reproduced in Gruenwedel's _Buddhist Art in India_. Translated by Gibson, 1901, p. 200.]

[Footnote 46: Dharmacakramudra.]

[Footnote 47: For the Nepalese legends see S. Levi, _Le Nepal_, 1905-9.]

[Footnote 48: For an account of this sacred mountain see Edkins, _Religion in China_, chaps. XVII to XIX.]

[Footnote 49: See I-tsing, trans. Takakusu, 1896, p. 136. For some further remarks on the possible foreign origin of Manjusri see below, chapter on Central Asia. The verses attributed to King Harsha (Nanjio, 1071) praise the reliquaries of China but without details.]

[Footnote 50: Some of the Tantras, _e.g._ the Mahacinakramacara, though they do not connect Manjusri with China, represent some of their most surprising novelties as having been brought thence by ancient sages like Vasishtha.]