But violence, too, has a long history and, in all ages, aware minds have attempted to re-establish humane virtues. With the Buddha’s final release, Buddhism developed the idea and image of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the embodiment of compassion, empathy, and grace. The increasing popularity of Buddhism led to the rise of different sects – from the relatively more conservative Theravada to more assimilative and complex Mahayana and Vajrayana forms, in turn, also resulting in many different schools of Buddhist thought.
The concept of the bodhisattva was extended to include multiple bodhisattvas. Just as many Buddhas, past and future, became part of increasingly complex Buddhist iconographies. The bodhisattvas are considered to be evolved beings, wise and compassionate. Their most endearing characteristic is their altruistic nature of helping all creatures to move forward along the path of Buddhahood, rather than aiming exclusively for their own liberation.
The bodhisattva ideal of great compassion – mahakaruna – found its greatest expression in Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who is believed to have withheld personal deliverance to protect and help all others along the path. Representations of Avalokiteshvara in literature and art began appearing first in the Gandhara and Mathura regions of South Asia from the early centuries of the 1st millennium CE and next, wherever Buddhism travelled across Asia.
His cult and worship saw an upswing from the 5th-6th centuries, inspired by Buddhist texts like the Saddharmapundarika and Karandavyuha Sutras that extol him as the ultimate beneficent saviour of all living creatures, possessing great protective and magical powers.
A most striking innovation in the iconographic composition of this bodhisattva is that of the ‘AshtamahabhayaAvalokiteshvara’. This is a particular favourite in the famous rock-cut caves of Maharashtra, especially at Ajanta, Kanheri, Ellora and Aurangabad. At the centre of our sculpture is a tall Avalokiteshvara, standing in equipoise in the gesture of fearlessness (abhaya) indicated by his right hand and holding a lotus with a meandering stalk in his left hand. His long, matted tresses bear Amitabha, the Buddha of immeasurable light.The smaller compositions surrounding this colossal Avalokiteshvara are, perhaps, the most captivating. Eight small visual narratives envelop the central image. They visualise the devotees’ fears of ‘great perils’ and Avalokiteshvara’s powers to redeem them. In each, a specific ‘great fear’ (mahabhaya) is portrayed, and every time, Avalokiteshvara miraculously appears in response to the devotees’ prayers to rescue them.At the entrance to the main chamber of Cave 7 in Aurangabad (photo), moving clockwise from the bottom left, we see a series of ‘rescue-narratives’ portraying the bodhisattva protecting his devotees from shipwreck, chained captivity, an enemy attack, a fire episode, successive confrontations with a lion, snakes, and an elephant, and finally, a difficult-to-identify episode, perhaps fear of black magic.
By the 6th-7th centuries, the worship of Avalokiteshvara as a protector of travellers, mariners and pilgrims across long distances by land and sea had gained great favour. As Pia Brancaccio and Osmund Bopearachchi have shown, this was an important factor in the spread of Avalokiteshvara worship to large parts of Asia.
In China, a gradual transformation of Avalokiteshvara from a male deity to a female kuan-yin occurred by the 12th-13th centuries, associating compassion with feminine aspects of human nature. Human apathy and violence in a ‘progressive’, democratic nation is ironic and shameful, and a path guided by compassion, empathy and grace is the greatest need of the hour.
