Iconography of Adi Buddhi (Vajrasattva)

Iconography of Buddhist Sculptures in the DACCA MUSEUM. BUDDHIST SCULPTURES. (A) MALE DIVINITIES. i) ADI BUDDHA. Vajrasattva. Adi Buddha is very seldom portrayed. He is the eternal and the self-existent source of all creation and is hardly material enough for portrayal. Vajradhara is a sort of active agent of Adi Buddha and he is sometimes identified with a god of similar name called Vajrasattva. Vajradhara as Dharmmavajra has in his right hand a double is held on the thigh with the left hand. Vajrasattva has also similar attributes, but the Vajra in the right hand appears to be single and not double. Vajra balanced at the breast. A bells There is no sample of Vajrasattva in the collections of the Dacca Museum. The one described below is preserved in the house of Babu Kamakhya Natha Vandyopadhyaya in the village of Sukhabaspur,-Police station Munsiganj, Dt. Dacca.

[1. Image of Vajrasattva in black stone, 4"x 31 Inscribed on the back with the Buddhist creed "Ye Dharmma" etc., in the Bengali script of the 10 th century A. D. The god. sits with his legs one upon the other, (not locked, as required by the canons) and the soles of his feet are visible. His right hand balances a Vajra at his breast and the left holds the bell on the hip. The body and the head are slightly bent to the left in Abhanga pose, but probably this has no iconographical significance and only depicts the natural equipoise of the body in balancing the Vajra at the breast, with the right hand. It may be noted that in the illustration of Vajrasattva published in Foucher's Iconographie Bouddhique, Vol. 1, Plate VI, fig. 6, the body of the god shows a similar bent to the left. This appears to have been a favourite pose of Vajrasattva. This pose is seen also in the representation of Vajrasattva occurring on the sculpture of Syama Tara from Sompara described below. But the straight pose, samabhanga, was also used, as may be seen from the illustration of Vajrasattva published by Foucher in Iconographie, Vol. 1. page 22, and, also from the curious draped representation of Vajrasattva occurring below the lotus seat of the image of Lokesvara from Belasa, described below. Note the two lions with faces in opposite directions depicted below the present image.]