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Another important Buddhist goddess Janguli may be compared with Hindu goddess Manasa. Both these goddess is worshipped in order to avert snake-bite. Different Sadhanas describe goddess Janguli in three different forms. She may have one face and four arms.or three faces and six arms or four faces with four arms. In one of three forms either a Vina or a snake is regarded as her symbols. In her three-faced form she rides on a snake which is her vehicle. When she is four-faced and four-armed she exhibits abhaya-mudra with her upper right hand, while her upper left hand holds a white snake. Curiously enough, she holds a vina, the usual emblem of Sarasvati, by her normal two hands. In this connection it may be mentioned here that the Atharvaveda describe Sarasvati as the destroyer of poison. But this aspect of Sarasvati did not get much popularity in the Brahmanical pantheon. Even the Indian Buddhist of Mahayana-Vajrayana faith did not recognise this concept of Sarasvati. But in Japan Benzai-ten or Sarasvati is sometimes associated with dragon or snake. In India, generally,

- 45 the identification marks of Janguli are a snake and abhayamudra. The foregoing discussion on different Buddhist images and some Brahmanical deities apparently reveal the fact that the Buddhist pantheon is not wholly consisted of Buddhist gods. Different Brahmanical gods and goddess though they were sometimes given humiliating role were adopted in the Buddhist pantheon. Some deities were directly borrowed in Buddhism from the Brahmanical pantheon. Sometimes the Buddhists included some Brahmanical deities by ascribing different names to those deities and in some cases the Brahmanical deities were regarded as merely the accessory deities of the Buddhist gods and goddesses. Not only in India but also in countries outside India we find that different Brahmanical deities are worshipped, but the presence of these deities in those countries are in 'Buddhist, garb'. In China also Agni, Brahma, Ganesa and other important Brahmanical deities occupy honourable positions. But the iconographical and ideological concept related to these deities, both Brahmanical and Buddhist, underwent some changes. The interesting aspects of the changes in the ideas and beliefs have been variously noted in the following two chapters.