30 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



such a series the relationships are very evident, and there is no room for 

 the insertion of any Hellenistic type. 



The Bodhisattvas Padmapani, Vajrapani and Maitreya may be dis- 

 cussed in greater detail. 



The earliest Buddha triads are represented, as in plate 9, by a 

 Bodhi-tree supported by two Yaksas, each with an expanded rose- 

 lotus (padnia) in hand, or by a symbol (the wheel) between similar 

 Yaksas with a caitrl (pi. 10, fig. i). Yaksas with a lotus in hand 

 appear as guardian figures {dvarapalas) at Sahci (pi. 8) and else- 

 where (pi. 7). Now, a Yaksa with a padma in hand can only be 

 described adjectivally as padma-pani; can it be doubted that the 

 Bodhisattva Padmapani (a form or designation of Avalokitesvara), 

 whom we find a little later attendant on the Buddha or as an inde- 

 pendent Buddhist deity, is the same historically and iconographically, 

 as the padma-pani Yaksa of the earlier sculpture? The caur'i- 

 bearing Yaksas (HIIA, figs. 84, and 85 right), too, are the same as 

 those of the earlier compositions, but we cannot as a rule give them 

 a name. 



The case of Vajrapani is more involved.^ The one obvious vajra- 

 pani of Indian mythology is Indra, whose weapon is the thunderbolt 

 already in the Vedas. In Buddhist mythology Indra is known as 

 Sakka (San. Sakra), and he plays a conspicuous part in the Buddhist 

 legend visiting or aiding the Buddha on various occasions." Buddha- 

 ghosa ^ tells us that Vajrapani is the same as Sakka ; and Sakka, upon 

 occasion (Yakkha Suttas, 2) may be called a Yakkha. But Sakka is 

 never himself a Bodhisattva. 



On the other hand Vajrapani, independently of Indra, is called a 

 Yaksa in the Mahamayurl list, where he is said to be the Yaksa of 

 Vulture's Peak, Rajagrha (the work krtdlaya seems to imply that 

 there was a temple). A Tibetan version of the Vinaya speaks of a 

 Yaksa Vajrapani (Gnod-sbyin Lag-na-rdo-rje). And in the Lalita 

 Vistara, XV, 66, we have a " benevolent lord of the Guhyakas, 



^ For Vajrapani in addition to references cited below, see also Vogel, Le 

 Vajrapani greco-hoiiddhique, B. E. F. E. O. XI, 191 1, p. 525, where it is ob- 

 served that Vajrapani and Indra are not necessarily always one and the same 

 persons. M. Foucher has already fully established the Yaksa origin of the 

 Bodhisattva Vajrapani (L'Art greco-bouddhiqiie . . . ., II, pp. 48-64). See also 

 Senart, E., Vajrapani dans les sculptures du gandhara, Congr. Int. Orientalistes, 

 14, Alger, 1905, pp. 111-131. 



" For a full and valuable discussion of Indra as Sakka, see Mrs. Rhys Davids, 

 Introduction to the Sakka-pahha Suttanta, SBB., III., p. 294. 



Waddell, Evolution of the Buddha cult, p. 118, citing Csoma de Koros, 

 Analysis of the Dulva, Asiatic Researches, XXj 64. 



^Commentary on the Amba{tha Sutto, cited SBB, II, 117. 



