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Ninth Century Scroll of the Vajradhatu Mandala
By: Lokesh Chandra

Ninth Century Scroll of the Vajradhatu Mandala, Lokesh Chandra


 
Our Price: $85.00
Members Price: $76.50
Author: Lokesh Chandra
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 8186471138
Publication Date: 1997


Product Code: 15979
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Description About the author
 
This ninth century scroll of the Vajradhatu Mandala is the earliest known scroll of Buddhist Iconography and thus it is of inestimable value for the History of Buddhist art. It is the first known Sketch book for a mandala, which represents the philosophic dimensions of the Tantric Vision in pictorial constellations. It illustrates the six Mandalas of the Vajradhatu system in confirmity with the Sanskrit text. Its illustrations were done by Subhakarasirhha who lived from 637 to 735. He used these sketches for the Drawing of the mandala for ritual and meditation. The scroll bears his Picture and signatures. The full title of the scroll is Rita-sogyara go-bu shin-kan or Meditation on the essence of the five Families of the Rita-samhara or Tattva-sangraha. It is a complete collection of the six mandalas in accordance with the first samaya of the Tattva-sangraha. The six mandalas represent two kramas. The first four mandalas are the process of emanation of deities (utpatti-krama). The last two represent their gradual reintegration into the central Deity Mahavairocana. Thus, they are the reabsorption (sampanna-krama) into the primordial unity of Mahavairocana. The first is the manifestation of the forms of divinities, while in the second they are consubstantiated with the Essence itself. They are the manifestation and reabsorption of phenomenal existence. By bhavana or thought-creation the Yogi produces the divinities of the mandala. The first mandala is the prototype representation of the other three, the second has the consort goddesses, the third suksma-mandalas is the esoteric representation symbolised by the addorsed vajra, and the fourth is the mandala for ritual where Vairocana is nirmanakaya that is in the robes of a monk. The scroll of the Gobu-shinkan was brought from China to Japan by Chisho Daishi in AD 855.



A Ninth Century Scroll of the Vajradhatu Mandala, Lokesh Chandra, Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, 1997. 5th or later edition, Hardcover, 350 pages, $85.00

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