DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0412
390 BUDDHIST CAVE-TEMPLES.
Kali have not found their counterparts: its divinities are kindly
and compassionate, and may be appealed to for protection. Buddlia
has passed nirvana, and is unaffected by aught that takes place in
the sphere of suffering humanity, but a legend has sprung up of a
Bodhisattwa of such compassion and self-denial that he has pledged
himself never to seek, through nirvana, to enter " the city of peace"
until he has redeemed the whole race from ignorance and suffering.
Such is Padmapani or Avalokiteswara Bodhisattwa—" the mani-
fested lord " or " the lord who looks down "— the lover and saviour of
men,—evidently borrowed from some western and Christian source.1
To the left of the entrance into the inner cave is a large tableau in
which he is represented with the jatd headdress of the ascetic,
holding the padma or lotus which is his cognizance in his left hand
and a mala or rosary in his right. At each side of the nimbus
which surrounds his head is a vidyddJiara with a garland, and
behind each an image of Buddha squatted on a lotus. At each side
are four smaller sculptures, which form a pictorial litany cut in
stone, executed with such simplicity and clearness that it is read at
a glance. In each scene two figures are represented as threatened
by some sudden danger, and praying to the merciful lord Avalo-
kiteswara, are met by him flying to their deliverance. In the
uppermost, on his right hand, the danger is fire; in the next, the
sword of an enemy; in the next, chains ; and in the lowest, ship-
wreck; on his left, again, the uppermost represents the attack o
a lion, the second of snakes, the third of an enraged elephant, ana
the last of death represented by the female demon Kali about to
carry off the child from the mother's lap.
This scene, as we have already remarked, is represented also <
Ajanta, and in painting in Cave XVII. there, as also at Elura an
at Kanheri (Plate LV). ,
On the other side of the door another tall figure is represents
with both human and celestial worshippers. The right hand, * «c
probably held a cognizance, is broken; but from the high &n^\1,el-
rich headdress we may infer that it is intended for Msajrm,
patron of the Mahdydna sect, and who is charged with the spreat
the religion.____
1 See Prof. Cowell in Jour, of Philology, vol. vi. (1876), pp. 222-231, »" ^
Ant., vol. viii.; Vassiliefs Le Bouddisme, pp. 121, 125, 212, &c, and J'"
Hep., pp. 74 111
Kali have not found their counterparts: its divinities are kindly
and compassionate, and may be appealed to for protection. Buddlia
has passed nirvana, and is unaffected by aught that takes place in
the sphere of suffering humanity, but a legend has sprung up of a
Bodhisattwa of such compassion and self-denial that he has pledged
himself never to seek, through nirvana, to enter " the city of peace"
until he has redeemed the whole race from ignorance and suffering.
Such is Padmapani or Avalokiteswara Bodhisattwa—" the mani-
fested lord " or " the lord who looks down "— the lover and saviour of
men,—evidently borrowed from some western and Christian source.1
To the left of the entrance into the inner cave is a large tableau in
which he is represented with the jatd headdress of the ascetic,
holding the padma or lotus which is his cognizance in his left hand
and a mala or rosary in his right. At each side of the nimbus
which surrounds his head is a vidyddJiara with a garland, and
behind each an image of Buddha squatted on a lotus. At each side
are four smaller sculptures, which form a pictorial litany cut in
stone, executed with such simplicity and clearness that it is read at
a glance. In each scene two figures are represented as threatened
by some sudden danger, and praying to the merciful lord Avalo-
kiteswara, are met by him flying to their deliverance. In the
uppermost, on his right hand, the danger is fire; in the next, the
sword of an enemy; in the next, chains ; and in the lowest, ship-
wreck; on his left, again, the uppermost represents the attack o
a lion, the second of snakes, the third of an enraged elephant, ana
the last of death represented by the female demon Kali about to
carry off the child from the mother's lap.
This scene, as we have already remarked, is represented also <
Ajanta, and in painting in Cave XVII. there, as also at Elura an
at Kanheri (Plate LV). ,
On the other side of the door another tall figure is represents
with both human and celestial worshippers. The right hand, * «c
probably held a cognizance, is broken; but from the high &n^\1,el-
rich headdress we may infer that it is intended for Msajrm,
patron of the Mahdydna sect, and who is charged with the spreat
the religion.____
1 See Prof. Cowell in Jour, of Philology, vol. vi. (1876), pp. 222-231, »" ^
Ant., vol. viii.; Vassiliefs Le Bouddisme, pp. 121, 125, 212, &c, and J'"
Hep., pp. 74 111