Amitabha and His Family (An Old & Rare Book)

About the Book This book marks a new orientation in the study of history of Buddhism and its iconography, divided into five chapters: Chapter-1 Prologue: Chapter-II Philosophical study: Chapter-III Mythological study: Chapter-IV Iconological study: and Chapter-V Epilogue.

Some of the outstanding results obtained in the study are focussing light on several problems of Buddhism, e.g., family-system in the Buddhist Pantheon and specifications of the Amitabha family in Ch. I; (b) Trip ple-Body of the Buddha and its corelation with dhyani Buddha and Bodhisattva and manusi Buddha in Ch. II; (c) Mythology on Amitabha, theological development of Amitabha and Avalokitesvara in Ch. III, an aesthetic appreciation of the actual specimens in perspective of the conceptual background, a survey on images of Avalo kitesvara not tallying with the sastric descriptions in Ch. IV.

The emphasis has been laid on the study of the socio-historical perspective of the images. The critical apparatus used consists of original source-materials, both published and unpublished.

Copious textual citations and visual documentation in the form of Thirty-eight illustrations of images lend authenticity to the volume which doubtless is a significant scholarly contribution to the iconological study of Indian art.

About the Author The author, Dr. (Mrs.) Santipriya Mukhopa dhyay (b. 1949), a devoted student of Indian art, keenly interested in Religion and Ethics. She graduated from the Calcutta University with Honours in Ancient Indian & World History and received a First Class in the M.A. of the same university in Ancient Indian History & Culture. She obtained the Ph.D. degree of the Calcutta University for her thesis on "Some Principal Deities of the Amitabha Family-A Study". At present she is working as the Gallery Assistant, Art Section, Indian Museum. She is also a part-time Lecturer in the department of History of Art, Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta. She has already published a catalogue of "Embroidered Textiles from Cutch & Kathiawar" in the collection of Indian Museum. She has also contributed some articles in different art and antiquarian journals, while some are under publication.

Foreword Rise of Buddhism as an esoteric creed and a distinct philosophical reasoning is known to have played a very crucial factor in cultural traditions of India and many of the facets of the highly kaleidoscopic spectrum of this phenomenon remain yet to be elucidated in detail. Human thinking in quest for the ephemeral has always tended to proliferate in many directions and it is no wonder that Buddhism also had grown branches of diverse character blooming with flowers of many hues. Of the different branches of Indian thought, Mahayanism had provided scope for voyage along uncharted courses giving vent to formulations of highly interesting nature. A moot realisation of this concept has been about time having no beginning nor any end. This endless expanse of time has been comprehended as encompassed into acons, each presided over by a Dhyani Buddhas, in all five in number, each having his own world of divinities linked to the Sire in highly philosophical bond. The concept reveals a deeply intricate ideation of void or nothingness called Sanyata which has provided limitless scope for speculating by thinkers on the one hand while on the other the artist had found unbounded scope for creating devine forms of deeply sensitive and meaningful nature. Amitabha is held by the Mahayanists as the Sire of the current aeon (kalpa) and the dhyani Bodhisattava attached to him called Avalokitesvara had been conceived as endowed with characters of very deep and widely significant import.

Santipriya Mukhopadhyay, who had obtained a first class in her M.A. has proved herself a very fit person to undertake a study of this very complicated yet meaningful domain of Indian philosophical and aesthetic exploration which she has undoubtedly accomplished with considerable credit and distinction.

Preface This monograph which deals with an analytical study of some principal Buddhist deities, viz. Amitabha, Avalokitesvara and others is the result of my research work which I took up not merely with interest in but with a deeper sympathy for the icons these I used to visualize in different museums and archaeological sites when engaged in my academic studies.

History of Buddhism is a compact and longdrawn one. Gautama, the historical Buddha, stands unique as a living personality in the whole range of Buddhism-right upto about 11th-12th cents. A.D. in Indian subcontinent. During his life-time Gautama Buddha acted as the Great Propounder, Preacher and Master. The influence of Buddha after his death, however, became more effective and impressive as the vast source-material revealed in literary texts and archaeological remains stand to prove. From a mortal man Gautama had been transformend into the moral and ethical law, i.c. dharma propounded by himself, next he became the superman, Mahapuruşa who had lived his earthly life in order to carry on the divine sport; there arose a docetic tendency in Buddhism; mythological concept began to grow around the religious figure of the Buddha and came to be widely recognized-the figure ultimately stood for a deity evoking devotion and adoration of the devotees (by 1st-2nd cents. A.D.). He is next found to be realized in the form of an image, commanding upon the union (yoga) of the two-fold soul (Jivätman and Paramatman) of the devotees (by 3rd-4th cents. A.D.). Soon these images came to be used as instruments (yantra) helping meditation that is sadhana and siddhi (from 7th-8th cents. onwards). Obviously Tantric affiliation was the leading contributory factor behind this development. The result was formulation of diversified iconographic formula and their usual representations in sculpture and painting. The one Buddha became many with the passage of time.

**Contents and Sample Pages**