Christianpedia

File: Buddha-Vajrapani-Herakles.JPG

Original file ‎(983 × 1,068 pixels, file size: 574 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

This file is from Wikimedia Commons and may be used by other projects. The description on its file description page there is shown below.

Summary

Description
English: Panel showing the Buddha performing a miracle before ascetics. Kushan period, 2ndC-3rdC. Schist, H. 29,5 cm. (complete, here: partial view). « On the Buddha's left, Vajrapāṇi, with long, bearded face, modelled planes of musculature, genitals, a long draped overgarment from his left shoulder passing across the legs, holds a faceted vajra with rounded ends in his left hand and raises a fly-whisk like a torch in the right. » (Museum Collection on line) : This is a detail of a frieze regarding the conversion of three brothers to Buddhism. It is cropped to focus on the Buddha flanked by a figure of his guardian, Vajrapāṇi. [1]

In this image, Vajrapani is depicted in a more classically Grecian style than the surrounding figures, indicative of his cross-cultural status. Vajrapani is usually syncretized with Hercules,[2] but is also sometimes syncretized with Zeus. [3] (This particular piece could be understood either way)

In one hand Vajrapani carries a vajra (usually syncretized with Zeus' lightening and/or Hercules' sacred club) and in the other he brandishes a chamara, which is a fly-wisk symbolic of the sovereignty of the Buddha. [4]

References

  1. ↑ "On the Buddha's left, Vajrapāṇi, with long, bearded face, modelled planes of musculature, genitals, a long draped overgarment from his left shoulder passing across the legs, holds a faceted vajra with rounded ends in his left hand and raises a fly-whisk like a torch in the right." Panel #1961,0218.1. British Museum.[1]
  2. ↑ "Heracles became Vajrapani, guardian of Sakyamuni. There is a wealth of material and studies on the subject... to explain how Heracles went from being a purely classical Greek figure to being a guardian god in the Buddhist pantheon." HSING, I-TIEN, and WILLIAM G. CROWELL. “Heracles in the East: The Diffusion and Transformation of His Image in the Arts of Central Asia, India, and Medieval China.” Asia Major, vol. 18, no. 2, 2005, pp. 103–154. JSTOR, [www.jstor.org/stable/41649907]
  3. ↑ "In the art of Gandhara Zeus became the inseparable companion of the Buddha as Vajrapani." in Freedom, Progress, and Society, by K. Satchidananda Murty p.97
  4. ↑ The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols p.177
Date
Source Own work
Author User:World Imaging
Other versions

Licensing

{{self|cc-by-3.0}



GNU head Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.
w:en:Creative Commons
attribution share alike 		This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
You are free:
  • to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
  • attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.
This licensing tag was added to this file as part of the GFDL licensing update.

Captions

Detail from a Kushan frieze showing the Buddha flanked by a Greek-inspired Vajrapani.

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

media type

image/jpeg

checksum

de4897abd329e038f929d7a845d70f2dafe726c1

determination method or standard: SHA-1

data size

587,433 byte

height

1,068 pixel

width

983 pixel

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current13:39, 25 August 2005Thumbnail for version as of 13:39, 25 August 2005983 × 1,068 (574 KB)wikimediacommons>World ImagingBritish Museum. Personal photograph 2005. {{GDFL}}

The following page uses this file:

Metadata

This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it.

If the file has been modified from its original state, some details may not fully reflect the modified file.

Retrieved from "http://christianpedia.com/index.php?title=File:Buddha-Vajrapani-Herakles.JPG"
Discuss this page