(a) Hayagrîva[1040], the horse-necked god. In India he appears to be connected with Vishnu rather than Śiva. The magic dagger with which Lamas believe they can stab demons is said to be a form of him. The Mongols regard him as the protector of horses. (b) Yama, the Indian god of the dead, accompanied by a hellish retinue including living skeletons. (c) Mahâkâla, the form of Śiva already mentioned. It was by his inspiration that Pagspa was able to convert Khubilai Khan. (d) Lha-mo, the goddess, that is Devî, the spouse of Śiva. (e) lCam-sraṇ, a war god of somewhat uncertain origin but perhaps a Tibetan form of Kârtikeya. Other deities frequently included in this group are Yamântaka, mentioned above, Kubera or Vaiśravana, the Hindu god of wealth, and a deity called the White Brahmâ (Thsangspa dKarpo). This last is an ordinary human figure riding on a white horse and brandishing a sword. He wears white clothes and a crown or turban. He is perhaps Kalkî who, as suggested above, had some connection with the Kâlacakra. The Eight Terrible Ones and their attendants are represented by grotesquely masked figures in the dances and mystery plays enacted by Lamas. These performances are said to be still known among the vulgar as dances of the Red Tiger Devil, but in the hands of the Yellow Church have become a historical drama representing the persecution of Buddhism under King Lang-dar-ma and its ultimate triumph after he has been slain by the help of these ghostly champions.
Lamaist books mention numerous other Indian divinities, such as Brahmâ, the thirty-three Devas, the Kings of the four quarters, etc. These have no particular place in the system but their appearance in art and literature is natural, since they are decorative though not essential parts of early Buddhism. The same may be said of all the host of Nâgas, Yakshas, Rakshasas, etc. But though these multitudinous spirits have been rearranged and classified in conformity with Hindu ideas they are not an importation but rather part of the old folklore of Tibet, in many ways identical with the same stratum of thought in India. Thus the snake demigods or Nâgas[1041] occupy in both countries a large place in the popular imagination. In the higher ranks of the Lamaist pantheon all the figures seem to be imported, but some indigenous godlings have retained a place in the lower classes. Such are rDo-rje-legs, at first an opponent of Buddhism as preached by Padma-Sambhava but honoured as a deity after making due submission, and the Five Kings[1042], a group of fierce spirits, under the presidency of dPe-dkar.
It remains to say a word of the numerous goddesses who play an important part in Tibetan Buddhism, as in Hindu Tantrism. They are usually represented as the female counterparts or better halves of male deities, but some are self-sufficient. The greatest of these goddesses is Târâ[1043]. Though Lamaist theology describes her as the spouse of Avalokita she is not a single personality but a generic name applied to a whole class of female deities and, as in many other cases, no clear distinction is drawn between her attendants and the forms which she herself assumes. Originally benevolent and depicted with the attributes of Lakshmî she is transformed by a turn of Tibetan imagination, with which the reader is now familiar, into various terrible shapes and is practically the same as the spouse of Śiva, celebrated in the Tantras under countless names. Twenty-one Târâs are often enumerated in a list said to be well known even to the laity[1044] and there are others. Among them are (a) the Green Târâ, the commonest form in Tibet. (b) The White Târâ, much worshipped by Mongols and supposed to be incarnate in the Tsar of Russia, (c) Bhrikutî, a dark blue, angry, frowning form, (d) Ushṇîshavijayâ[1045], a graceful and benevolent form known to the Japanese. She is mentioned in the Horiuji palm-leaf manuscript which dates from at least 609 A.D. (e) Parṇaśavarî, represented as wearing a girdle of leaves and also called Gandhârî, Piśâcî and Sarva-Śavarâṇâm Bhagavatî[1046]. She is apparently the goddess of an aboriginal tribe in India. (f) Kurukullâ, a goddess of riches, inhabiting caves. She is said to have given great wealth to the fifth Grand Lama, and though she might be suspected of being a native deity was known in Nepal and India[1047].
The Goddess Marîcî, often depicted with Târâ, appears to be distinct and in one form is represented with a sow's head and known as Vajravarâhî. As such she is incarnate in the abbesses of several monasteries, particularly Samding on lake Yamdok[1048].
A notice of Tibetan Buddhism can hardly avoid referring to the use of praying wheels and the celebrated formula Om maṇi padme hum. Though these are among the most conspicuous and ubiquitous features of Lamaism their origin is strangely obscure[1049]. Attempts to connect the praying wheel with the wheel of the law, the cakravartin and other uses of the wheel in Indian symbolism, are irrelevant, for the object to be explained is not really a wheel but a barrel, large or small, containing written prayers, or even a whole library. Those who turn the barrel acquire all the merit arising from repeating the prayers or reading the books. In Tibet this form of devotion is a national mania. People carry small prayer wheels in their hands as they walk and place large ones in rivers to be turned by the current. In China, Japan and Korea we find revolving libraries and occasional praying machines, though not of quite the same form as in Tibet[1050], but, so far as I know, there is nothing to show that these were not introduced from Tibet into China and thence found their way further East. The hypothesis that they were known in India and thence exported to Tibet on one side and China on the other naturally suggests itself, but the total absence of praying machines in India as well as in the ruined cities of Central Asia and the general Hindu habit of regarding scriptures and spells as words rather than written documents lend it no support. It may be that when the illiterate Tibetans first became acquainted with written prayers, they invented this singular method of utilizing them without reading them.
Equally obscure is the origin of the formula Om maṇi padme[1051] hum, which permeates Tibet, uttered by every human voice, revolved in countless machines, graven on the rocks, printed on flags. It is obviously a Dhâraṇî[1052] and there is no reason to doubt that it came to Tibet with the first introduction of Buddhism, but also no record. The earliest passage hitherto quoted for its occurrence is a Chinese translation made between 980 and 1001 A.D.[1053] and said to correspond with the Kanjur and the earliest historical mention of its use is found in Willelm de Rubruk (1254) and in the writings of Bu-ston[1054]. The first legend of its origin is contained in the Manikambum, a work of doubtful age and authorship but perhaps as old as the fifteenth century[1055]. The popularity of the prayer may date from the time when the pontiffs of Lhasa were recognized as incarnations of Avalokita. The first and last words are mystic syllables such as often occur in these formulæ. Maṇi padme is generally interpreted to mean the jewel in the lotus[1056], but Thomas has pointed out that it is more consonant with grammar and usage to regard the syllables as one word and the vocative of a feminine title similar to Padmapâṇi, one of Avalokita's many names. The analogy of similar spells supports this interpretation and it seems probable that the formula was originally an invocation of the Śakti under the title of Maṇipadmâ, although so far as I know it is now regarded by the Tibetans as an address to the male Avalokita. It has also been suggested that the prominence of this prayer may be due to Manichæan influence and the idea that it contained the name of Mani. The suggestion is not absurd for in many instances Manichæism and Buddhism were mixed together, but if it were true we should expect to find the formula frequently used in the Tarim basin, but of such use there is no proof.
FOOTNOTES:
[1012] The Shingon sect in Japan depict benevolent deities in a raging form, Funnu. See Kokka, No. 292, p. 58. The idea goes back to India where the canons of sacred art recognize that deities can be represented in a pacific (śânta or saumya) or in a terrific (ugra or raudra) form. See Gopinath Rao, Hindu Iconography, vol. I. p. 19, and vol. II of the same for a lengthy description of the aspects of Śiva.
[1013] E.g. Grünwedel, Buddhist art in India, fig. 149, id. Mythologie, fig. 54.
[1014] But there is still a hereditary incarnation of Ganeśa near Poona, which began in the seventeenth century. See Asiatic Researches, VII. 381.