1922.] Concerning a Bon Image 209 
Sis | ANS, the three, or trinity of, Hayagriva, Vajrapani 
~ 
~~ 
and Garuda. | 
That the Garuda plays an important part in the Bon 
teaching is well known, and the kinship of our image with 
Hayagriva and Vajrapani i is already sufficiently proved by the 
incident quoted before, of the identification of the Bon god 
with the two Lamaistic divinities by a Lamaist friend. There 
demoniacal or mythological at all. Iconographically it is 
difficult to believe that they either represent the Buddha and 
noted, however, because it may prove to furnish a clue to the 
solution of the problem. The tigure to the right has a little 
circle engraved between the eyebrows, or rather above the nose 
on the forehead, It isa perfect little circle and does not look 
like a third eye, oblong. The other figure lacks it. One of 
my informants says that this is the Urna or apanga, called in 
‘Tibetan Ex" * which sends out the marvellous ray of light 
ses, | 
called sIEt "IQR! . See J.’s dictionary under this word. 
ayaa. 
The Tibetan belief is that this is not a circle of hairs, but one 
single hair curled into a spiral. This mark, my informant 
holds, indicates that the figure showing it is indeed meant for 
the Buddha. Padmasambhava would be naturally without 
it. If the circle represents an ordinary tilaka, faa, then 
no inference can be drawn pee it as to the sex of the wearer, 
s both men and women wear tilakas. 
Who the Rutas are (55, elsewhere written = ), has 
also to be determined. An obvious nee might suggest the 
Indian Rudra (Griinwedel, Mythologie, p. 180). Sarat Chandra 
Das also lets the Rudras play an enpartbie part in the Bon 
hierarchy of superhumans. The important place they occupy 
in Lamaist tantrism may be learned from Sir John Woodroffe’s 
Shakti and Shakta, or Avalon’s Tantrik Texts, Vol. VII, a 
Shrichakrasambhara. Padmacandra says that Ags 
