Books

The dictionary of Buddhist Iconography is an endeavour of half a century to identify, classify, describe and delineate the bewildering variation in Buddhist icons, ever since the representation of the Buddha on a coin of the Kushan Emperor Kaniska. It is a continuation of the vast iconic materials and research that the author's father Prof. RaghuVira had conducted since the 1930s. Thousands of index cards, microfilms, photographs, painted scrolls, statues, woodcuts, line drawings, sketches in manuscripts and xylographs, of Buddhist deities have been used in this Dictionary. It documents the art that arose in the hot plains and snowy heights of Asia and became the artistic and divine heritage of India, Nepal, Buryatia, Mongolia, Tibet, Central Asia, China, Korea, Japan, Srilanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries. The Dictionary spans the last twenty centuries, and it is a comparative study of unprecedented geographic variations, besides the ever-evolving visualisations of great masters who introduced extraordinary plurality of divine forms in the dharanis and sadhanas. Volume 1 - Abarokiteishubara - Amoghavajra; Volume 2 - Amoghavikramin - Bzod.par.smra.ba.can; Volume 3 - Cagan Acala - Dhupa; Volume 4 - Dhyana-paramita - Gzuns.las.byun.bahi lha.mo Nor.rgyun.ma; Volume 5 - Haakushu - Jyotisprabha ? Buddha; Volume 6 - Kabira-jin - Lva.va.pahi Bde.mchog; Volume 7 - Ma.bdud - Manjushiri; Volume 8 - Manjusri - Nyoze-en; Volume 9 - Ober-e ober-e dagagci eke - Quricaqui ugei kobegun; Volume 10 - RA - Sakyamitra; Volume 11 - Sakyamuni - Sparsavajra; Volume 12 - Spar.smehi.hkhor.lo - Tzu-tsai-yuan-mu; Volume 13 - Ubai-shin - Vajrakulodbhava; Volume 14 - Vajrakumara - Vasumitra; Volume 15 - Vasundhara - Zyokukai (completed) (Satapitaka Series; 601-606, 608-616).