File:Buddha-Vajrapani-Herakles.JPG

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

Summary

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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
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current13:39, 25 August 2005Thumbnail for version as of 13:39, 25 August 2005983 × 1,068 (574 KB)World Imaging (talk | contribs)British Museum. Personal photograph 2005. {{GDFL}}

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