Published in Bulletin of the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Vol. 5 (1955-57): 12- 15.
With the development of the Mahayana school of Buddhism and subsequently the cult of the Bodhisattvas, innumerable sculptures came to be carved on the walls of the Buddhist cave shrines of Western India. Of these the most numerous were those of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara or Padmapani, the compassionate and the saviour of the faithful from evils. The Mahayana school has also been responsible for bringing into the Buddhist pantheon numerous goddesses of whom Tara, the female counterpart of Avalokitesvara, is the most important. She appears to have been received with the same reverence as Avalokitesvara and was given equal rank and endowed with the same powers. This is borne out amply by a panel from Ellora, recently noticed by the writer, showing Tara in the act of giving protection to worshippers from the same dangers from which they are usually delivered by Padmapani. The Buddhist litanies showing Avalokitesvara in the act of giving protection to devotees from various evil appears on the walls of the caves at Ajanta, Aurangabad, Ellora and Kanheri in the sixth-seventh century A.D. It is interesting to note that all these caves were excavated near the ancient trade routes, and that the dangers from which Avalokitesvara saved his devotees were generally those which merchants generally encountered on their journeys or voyages. It is interesting to speculate how far such panels were inspired by the traders in order to ensure a successful termination of their expeditions.
Strangely enough, scholars like Fergusson, Burgess and Wauchope who have worked on the Ellora caves previously, do not mention the panel under discussion in their works and apparently none of them seems to have noticed it. The panel itself is carved on the façade of Cave IX and is datable to the mid seventh century A.D. Though much damaged, it has altogether six scenes in compartments, three on each side of Tara who stands in the centre holding the stem of the lotus in the left hand while the right hand is missing. Below are two nagas who grasp the stem of the lotus in which she is standing. To her right side, from the top, are the usual scenes representing the dangers of fire and shipwreck, the outline of the ship being still visible, but the central scene is missing; those on the left are the scenes depicting the dangers from naga, enemy and the enraged elephant.
There are two other panels depicting the litany to Padmapani at Ellora. [1] One of these, in a cell attached to Cave IV, is fragmentary, as the wall there has been pierced for an opening. It has the scenes showing the menace of fire, robber and slavery. The litany outside Cave III has scenes of dangers from fire, robbery captivity, shipwreck (?) to the right and to the left from lion, snake, elephant and diseases. The prayer in which Padmapani is invoked is as follows: -
‘All hail! great compassionate Padmapani Bodhisattva,
Mahasatva! from the devouring fire, merciful one,
Deliver us! From the sword of the enemy, merciful lord,
Deliver us! From captivity and slavery, merciful one,
Deliver us! From shipwrecks, compassionate Lord,
Deliver us! From wild beasts, poisonous reptiles, and enraged animals great
Compassionate Lord,
Deliver us! Hail! Padmapani Bodhisattva
Hail! Amitabha Buddha!
From the descriptions of the panels in other caves, it will be observed that but for some minor changes, they are all alike.
It appears that Tara was introduced in the Buddhist pantheon in the sixth century A.D. Her worship was popular at Kanheri, Ellora and Aurangabad as is evident from the images in those caves. At Ajanta a sculptured image of Tara as such is not to be found at all. Some scholars, however, would like to identify the painted female figure by the side of the famous Bodhisattva in Cave I, as that of Tara. The absence of individual images of Tara, common in other Buddhist caves of the same age, would suggest that the worship of Tara was not popular with the Buddhists of Ajanta and the cult might have belonged to a different sect. At Ellora however, she has been figured profusely. When shown alone, she is in the attitude of giving protection to worshippers, her right hand being in abhayamudra. Otherwise, she is seen with Padmapani.
In cave XII (eighth century A.D.) at Ellora can be seen a panel of three figures consisting of Kubera, Padmapani and Tara. In the shrines of Caves XII and XI Tara is figured on one side of the door facing the Buddha while on the other side is Kubera. Tara was always connected with navigation and invoked for the safe crossing of the waters. Perhaps her connection with navigation made her worship popular in the Suvarnadvipa as well. To quote Hirananda Sastri,
“In the eighth century her worship extended to Java as is evidenced by a Nagari inscription recording the date of the construction in the year 1700 (sic) [2] of the Saka era (A.D. 778) of the sanctuary called Kalsan Chandi, which as is shown by the remarks must have been one of the most remarkable temple of the island. In the epigraph we find a Sailendra prince, the founder of the sanctuary, doing homage to Tara, the saviour of men, as the noble and venerable one whose smile made the sun to shine and whose frown made darkness to envelope the terrestrial sphere. This temple was dedicated to Tara herself whose image it enshrined… Later on i.e. told that there was hardly a household altar in North India in those days without a statue of Tara.” [3]
Very interesting is the inscription of A.D. 1095-6 of the time of Western Chalukya king Trubhuvanamalla or Vikramaditya VI (A.D. 1076-1126), in old Kanarese, which begins with a stuti to Tara; “Reverence to Buddha! Reverence to Thee, O holy Tara, who dost allay the fear of lions and elephants and fire and hooded snakes and thieves and fetters and waters and the ocean and demons and who dost bear a splendour like that of the rays of the moon!” [4] and ends with “May (the goddess) Tara, -- who is anxiously busied with the exercise of tenderness entailed by preserving (persons possessed of) souls who are distressed by the notorious fear of water and kings and volumes of fire and wind; who takes away the dread of bold thieves and oceans and elephants and lions and snakes etc.; and who quickly confers the rewards that are desired, always preserve Sangama!” [5] The inscribed stone-tablet was found near a ruined Jaina temple in the fort of Dambal, in the Gadag Taluka of Dharwar district. The inscription appears below the figure of Tara. The object of the inscription is to record certain grants to the two viharas of Buddha and Taradevi, the latter constructed by the Jaina sresthi Samgavayya of Lokkigundi. It is gratifying to note that a sculptured panel of the seventh century A.D. finds aparallelinandiscorroborated by the epigraphical record of the late eleventh century A.D. It is hardly a matter of surprise that Tara was equally popular to all, and especially to the merchant class, irrespective of caste or creed. The fact that a Jaina sreshti constructed a vihara of Tara and in recording certain grants to it invoked the Goddess amply testified the presumption that such sculptured panels like the Buddhist litany to Padmapani and Tara were also got carved by the members of the merchant class.
Medieval sculptures of Tara are also to be found in other parts of India. To quote Banerjee, “It may be mentioned incidentally that the Mahayana Buddhist goddess Tara is conceived as saving her votaries from ‘eight great terrors’ (ashtamahabhaya) among which those mentioned above (i.e., captivity, wilderness, drowning, harassment by robbers, great forests etc.) are included. Medieval images of Tara from Southern and Eastern India are known in which these mahabhayas are illustrated in the prabhavali [6].
But this panel depicting the litany of Tara, being the only example, so far noticed in Western India, should be regarded as a unique specimen and perhaps the earliest of its kind.
Notes
1. At Ajanta in Caves II, IV and XVII the Litany to Padmapani is depicted. The eight dangers are those of the lion, elephant, fire, snake, robber, water, fetters and demon. In cabe LXVI at Kanheri, the scenes representing the dangers are from the elephant, lion, snake, fire, shipwreck, imprisonment, Garuda, disease, sword and enemy (?) and at Aurangabad in Cave VII, the dangers are of fire, robbery, captivity, shipwreck, lion, snake, elephant and disease.
2. This should probably be read as 700
3. Hirananda Sastri, The Origin and Cult of Tara, p. 12.
4. J.F. Fleet, Indian Antiquary, Vol. X, p. 185
5. Ibid., p. 185-190
6. J.N.Banerjea, Development of Hindu Iconography, 1956, p. 492
Published in Bulletin of the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Vol. 5 (1955-57): 12- 15.