| She appears to
be Khadiravani Tara. Khadiravani Tara, or the saviouress of the Khadira (catechu) forest,
is an emanation of the Dhyani Buddha Amoghasiddhi, who is taken to be a condensation of
the Green cosmic color. In order to show her origin, the Khadiravani deity usually has, on
her crown, a miniature figure of her sire with the Abhaya Mudra. Khadiravani is two-armed,
showing the Varada Mudra in the right hand and Utpala (night lotus) in the left and is
accompanied by the two goddesses Asokakanta Marici and Ekajata. Sometimes the companion
deities are not present. # It is, indeed, very
interesting to find that for centuries the worship of one form of Tara has been
substituted for another form of that deity. This is, no doubt, a matter for research and
one who goes deep into the study of the temples and legends will find many such cases of
transposition. When we say Durga image in Bihar, it may mean, in common parlance, the
image of any one of several Hindu female deities.
# See Dr. B. Bhattacharji's Buddhist Iconography
(Calcutta Firm K. L. Mukhopadhaya). |
