Essay name: Buddhist iconography in and outside India (Study)
Author:
Purabi Gangopadhyay
Affiliation: University of Calcutta / Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture
This work aims to systematically present the development and expansion of Mahayana-Vajrayana Buddhist iconography from India to other countries, such as China, Korea, and Japan. This study includes a historical account of Indian Buddhist iconography and the integration of Brahmanical gods into the Mahayana-Vajrayana phase.
Chapter 1: Introduction (History of Indian Culture)
17 (of 18)
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six-headed Brahma, the painted image of whom are used in the
Saddharmapu峁囜笉ar墨ka S奴tra rite鹿. Such six-headed Brahm盲 is
unheard of in India. The Tripitako also provides us with
information on Vi艣峁噓-N膩r膩ya峁嘺 (Naraen-ten) who may have three
h茅ads comprising a human head and heads of an elephant and
a boar or a tiger. This deity may also have three human
丑别补诲蝉虏.
We have already mentioned earlier that what Korea
received was the quintessence of Chinese Buddhism. The
Buddhistic ideas in Korea were deeply tinged by the Chinese
ideas and therefore the Korean Buddhistic iconography deve-
loped directly from the Chinese Buddhist iconographic ideas.
In the second chapter of our present work we have shown the
interesting features of Korean Buddhist iconography which
has many things in common with the Buddhist concept and
iconographic ideas of China.
We have discussed about various Buddhist deities,
such as, Amitabha, S膩kyamuni, Maitreya and other Bodhisattvas
in the following chapter on Korea,
The process of development of Buddhist iconography
outside India indeed provides an immense scope for study.
1. Cf. D.N. Bakshi, "Six headed Brahma (Bon-ten in Japan)"
based on the Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka as appeared in the
Bulletin of The Centre of Japanese Studies, Vol.II,
No.1. p.8.
2. Cf. D.N. Bakshi, "Iconography of Visnu N膩r膩ya峁嘺 in China
and Japan" in the Journal of Ancient Indian History &
Culture (Calcutta University), xiv. Pants, 1-2, 1983-84,
pp. 285 ff.
