Hinduism and Buddhism, Volume 2 | Page 8

Vaisali and
another at Tiladhaka in Magadha. This last stood on the right of a gigantic figure of
Buddha, Avalokita being on his left.[34]
Hsüan Chuang distinguishes To-lo (Târâ) and Kuan-tzu-tsai. The latter under the name of
Kuan-yin or Kwannon has become the most popular goddess of China and Japan, but is

apparently a form of Avalokita. The god in his desire to help mankind assumes many
shapes and, among these, divine womanhood has by the suffrage of millions been judged
the most appropriate. But Târâ was not originally the same as Kuan-yin, though the fact
that she accompanies Avalokita and shares his attributes may have made it easier to think
of him in female form.[35]
The circumstances in which Avalokita became a goddess are obscure. The Indian images
of him are not feminine, although his sex is hardly noticed before the tantric period. He is
not a male deity like Krishna, but a strong, bright spirit and like the Christian archangels
above sexual distinctions. No female form of him is reported from Tibet and this
confirms the idea that none was known in India,[36] and that the change was made in
China. It was probably facilitated by the worship of Târâ and of Hâritî, an ogress who
was converted by the Buddha and is frequently represented in her regenerate state
caressing a child. She is mentioned by Hsüan Chuang and by I-Ching who adds that her
image was already known in China. The Chinese also worshipped a native goddess called
T'ien-hou or T'ou-mu. Kuan-yin was also identified with an ancient Chinese heroine
called Miao-shên.[37] This is parallel to the legend of Ti-tsang (Kshitigarbha) who,
though a male Bodhisattva, was a virtuous maiden in two of his previous existences.
Evidently Chinese religious sentiment required a Madonna and it is not unnatural if the
god of mercy, who was reputed to assume many shapes and to give sons to the childless,
came to be thought of chiefly in a feminine form. The artists of the T'ang dynasty usually
represented Avalokita as a youth with a slight moustache and the evidence as to early
female figures does not seem to me strong,[38] though a priori I see no reason for
doubting their existence. In 1102 a Chinese monk named P'u-ming published a romantic
legend of Kuan-yin's earthly life which helped to popularize her worship. In this and
many other cases the later developments of Buddhism are due to Chinese fancy and have
no connection with Indian tradition.
Târâ is a goddess of north India, Nepal and the Lamaist Church and almost unknown in
China and Japan. Her name means she who causes to cross, that is who saves, life and its
troubles being by a common metaphor described as a sea. Târâ also means a star and in
Puranic mythology is the name given to the mother of Buddha, the planet Mercury.
Whether the name was first used by Buddhists or Brahmans is unknown, but after the
seventh century there was a decided tendency to give Târâ the epithets bestowed on the
Saktis of Siva and assimilate her to those goddesses. Thus in the list of her 108 names[39]
she is described among other more amiable attributes as terrible, furious, the slayer of
evil beings, the destroyer, and Kâlî: also as carrying skulls and being the mother of the
Vedas. Here we have if not the borrowing by Buddhists of a Saiva deity, at least the
grafting of Saiva conceptions on a Bodhisattva.
The second great Bodhisattva Mañjusrî[40] has other similar names, such as Mañjunâtha
and Mañjughosha, the word Mañju meaning sweet or pleasant. He is also Vagîsvara, the
Lord of Speech, and Kumârabhûta, the Prince, which possibly implies that he is the
Buddha's eldest son, charged with the government under his direction. He has much the
same literary history as Avalokita, not being mentioned in the Pali Canon nor in the
earlier Sanskrit works such as the Lalita-vistara and Divyâvadâna. But his name occurs in
the Sukhâvatî-vyûha: he is the principal interlocutor in the Lankâvatâra sûtra and is

extolled in the Ratna-karandaka-vyûha-sûtra.[41] In the greater part of the Lotus he is the
principal Bodhisattva and instructs Maitreya, because, though his youth is eternal, he has
known many Buddhas through innumerable ages. The Lotus[42] also recounts how he
visited the depths of the sea and converted the inhabitants thereof and how the Lord
taught him what are the duties of a Bodhisattva after the Buddha has entered finally into
Nirvana. As a rule he has no consort and appears as a male Athene, all intellect and
chastity, but sometimes Lakshmî or Sarasvatî or both are described as his consorts.[43]
His worship prevailed not only in India but in Nepal, Tibet, China, Japan and Java.
Fa-Hsien states that he was honoured in Central India, and