The Eleven-Headed Avalokitesvara is a study of the many origins that may have played a part in arriving at this number of heads, based on forms and powers male and female forms, origins based on name, in scriptural evidence and images, as well as Hindu deities, and finally origin seen in Rock-cut litanies in caves of India. Manifold as the sources are, they led to consideration of this Bodhisattva as the highest form of compassion in the widest sense of the word, ...