Development of Buddhist Iconography in Eastern India: A Study of Tara, Prajnas of Five Tathagatas and Bhrikuti

This book represents an important landmark in the study of the Buddhist iconography, particularly of the Buddhist female divinities. It goes to the credit of Dr (Mrs) Mallar Ghosh to brave her way through a wide maze of literary and archaeological data gleaned not merely from Indian context but also from Burma, China, Java, Nepal and Tibet to produce this erudite and, at the same time, admirably readable volume. Being a painstaking scholar noted for meticulousness, she has incorporated in all minuteness the description of the iconographical features of deities and their various forms, all based on textual prescriptions and development of the concept of certain Buddhist deities. The book has five chapters, the first one dealing with a general introduction. In the second, a critical reassessment of the existing notions about the origin of Tara and place of her origin has been made. She has shown here that Tara owed her origin to the concept of Devi and it was Eastern India which gave rise to this most powerful goddess of the Buddhist pantheon. The third chapter is devoted to Tara and seven of her manifestations. Dr. Ghosh has clearly brought out how Tara’s gradual evolution resulted in myriads of forms, including a few which are her own discovery. In the fourth chapter she has made an elaborate study of the little known Prajnas(Buddhasaktis) of the five Tathagatas (Dhyani Buddhas) and it goes entirely to her credit to identify a good number of forms of each of them. The fifth chapter is on Bhrikuti, a form which is distinctive from Tara inspired by the goddess Parvati of the Brahmanical tradition; indeed, her study revealed at least thirty varieties of Bhrikuti. Undoubtedly this is one of the best studies in recent times on Buddhist iconography and will prove to been indispensable volume to students of Buddhist art and religion.