The Indian Buddhist Iconography
by Benoytosh Bhattachacharyya | 1958 | 51,392 words | ISBN-10: 8173053138 | ISBN-13: 9788173053139
This page contains an iconography image of Emanations of Amoghasiddhi: Vajrashrinkhala and represents figure 175 of the book Indian Buddhist Iconography, based on extracts of the Sadhanamala English translation. These plates and illustrations represent either photographs of sculptures or line-drawing reproductions of paintings or other representations of Buddhist artwork.
Figure 175 - Emanations of Amoghasiddhi: Vajraśṛṅkhalā
Fig. 175: Vajraśṛṅkhalā
Colour: green;
Faces: three;
Arms: eight;
Āsana: lalita;
Symbol: chain.
Three Sādhana in the Sādhanamālā are devoted to the worship of Vajraśṛṅkhalā. Her colour is green, and as she emanates from Amoghasiddi she bears the image of that Dhyāni Buddha on the crown. “Śṛṅkhala” means a chain, and as the goddess carries a chain, marked with a Vajra, she is called Vajraśṛṅkhalā. The chain, therefore, is her characteristic sign and should be paid particular attention to, in identifying her images, if ever, they come to light. She may be compared with Vajrasphoṭā: another chain-bearing deity.
Vajraśṛṅkhalā may, according to the Sādhanas, have another form with three faces and six arms, in which case she carries the Vajra, the Vajraśṛṅkhala and the arrow in the three right hands; and the Tarjanī, the noose and the bow in the three left hands. The illustration (Fig. 175) shows this form of the goddess as drawn by the native Citrakāras of Nepal. She is represented in China.