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108
INTRODUCTION
of the Supreme Consciousness. In Northern Buddhism, as in Brahmanism, the Bodhi. sattvas and Devatās are accompanied by their energies (nu-ma) in female form, the Deva being called 'Yab' and his Shakti 'Yum'." PP. XV and XVI.
EXAMINATION OF DR. B. BHATTĀCHĀRYYA'S VIEWS
EXANI
According to Dr. B. Bhattācharyya, the prefix or suffix 'Vajra' to the names of deities is in ninety cases out of a hundred a certain sign of their originating from Buddhism and where gods and goddesses are described as nude and lustful, they also must have had their origin in Buddhism. This is too sweeping a statement to be true. As regards deities whose existence can be shown to be prior to the rise of Vajrayāna the rule would certainly not apply, so the question always remains to be considered whether a deity having vajra in his or her name existed prior to the rise of Vajrayāna. At page 121 of Shree Atmánanda centenary commemoration volume in his article entitled "Jain Iconography-a brief survey," following the same line of reasoning, Dr. B. Bhattā. chāryya says, about Jain Vidyādevis Vajrashỉnkhala and Vajrankushi that they are clearly importations from the Vajrayāna school of Buddhism. If the learned writer had taken care to inquire whether these deities are to be found in any works older than the rise of Vajrayāna, he would not have fallen into this error. We would say that the test itself suggested to ascertain the origin of deities is so crude that the conclusions drawn from it are bound to be faulty. The learned writer being rather more familiar with Buddhist deities is easily led away to infer whenever he sees names either identical or similar to Buddhist deities in other pantheons, that the deities of the latter are really Buddhist. Even when he may not feel certain he ventures into such a statement as "Gandhārī also has a peculiar Buddhist odour." Now the names of all the sixteen Vidyadevis including Vajrashịnkhala, Vajrānkushi and Gandhari* are to be found amongst other works in Nirvānakalikā by Sri Padaliptasūri,
*Gandhäriis one of the forty Vidyās named in Sūtrakstānga II, Sutra 2. We may state that Sūtrakstānga is one of the oldest Jain canonical works. See p. 164 Vasudeva-Hindi where also the name of Gandhari occurs.
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