Scultures of Avalokitesvara

There are at least sixteen bronze icons of Avalokitesvara. Two of them are two-armed, fourteen being four-armed. All these sixteen icons hold the stalk of a lotus with the left hand (in case of last specimen of this group, lotus is missing with departed halo) and except four-armed Sadakaari-Lokesvara rest display the varada-mudra, the seven being in the vajra-paryankasana and five in padmasana attitude. Figure of Amitabha, the spiritual sire of Avalokitesvara, is visible against the jata-mukuta of all the icons.

The concept of Avalokitesvara is datable to Asokan period. In Mahavastu Avadana the Mahasanghikas describe him as “Bhagavana who takes form of a Bodhisattva, whose duty is to look around (Avalokita= looking on) for sake of instructing people and for their constant welfare and happiness”. His attributes are aksasutra (rosary) and padma (lotus). He takes numerous forms to lead people to nirvana. His worship became popular in north India in 3^rd century A.D. and by the 7^th century A.D., he became most popular of the Bodhisattvas. FaHien and Huien-Tsng speak of him with great reverence (Gupta 1972: 112).

It is most popular Bodhisattva in Mahayana pantheon. He is an emanation of dhyani Buddha Amitabha and his sakti Pandara. He presides over present kalpa i.e., Bhadrakalpa. He is to rule over universe during the period between mahaparinirvana of manusi Buddha Gautama and appearance of future Buddha Maitreya.

He has been represented in a variety of forms. Sadhanamala contains thirty eight sadhanas devoted to him (Bhattacharya 1928: 125). Nispannayogavali gives an account of his fifteen special forms (Bhattacharya 1949: 58). There are supposed to have one hundred and eight forms of Avalokitesvaras Bhattacharya 1949: 124).