Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 6. (Budapest, 1963)
HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM - MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Tóth, Edit: The Iconography of the Portraits of the Pancaraksä-Manuscript
nectecl with Vairocana who reigns over the „central" point of the compass. Unfortunately we are not able to state with certainty the colour of our manuscript. The location of the goddess opposite Vairocana, however, might bear out the inference that her colour is white and she does not represent the South but the „central" quarter of the heavens. The figure of Mahäsähasrapramardani (Fig. 2) is also involved in a similar problem. Some sources describe her as blue or black, respectively, others as white. 6 Blue is the symbol of the East and of the air, it stands under the rule of AJcsobhya. As a matter of fact, Mahäsähasrapramardani appears in the East, according to the texts but her white portraits are usually linked to Vairocana. Owing to her element, our manuscript places her opposite AJcsobhya. The third goddess, Mahämäyüri 7 (Fig. 3) offers even more variations: she is red, yellow or green, and appears in the North or the South, respectively. The sources connect her with Amoghasiddhi. Our manuscript locates her opposite to Ratnasambhava. Mahäsitavati (Fig. 4) is in a similar situation. 8 She may, equally choose among yellow, green and red; some sources have her appear in the North, others in the West; her headdress is decorated with the picture of Amitabha. Our manuscript allots her a place opposite Amoghasiddhi The confusion culminates in the description of the goddess Mahämantränusärini (Fig. 5). 9 Her colour may be green, white, red or blue; she may be connected with the South, the West and the East; she falls into the sphere of authority of AJcsobhya. Our manuscript places her opposite Amitabha. A mere review of the contradictions may convince us of the unclear distinction and interwoven character of several groups of Lamaist mythology. A more detailed investigation of the data and the portraits of our manuscript proves, however, that in all cases the goddesses are represented with appearances and attributes identical with Kirf el' s description. These descriptions comprise two colours in several instances; one of them corresponds to the colour of the Dhyänibuddha picture given in the Sädhanamälä, the other to the colour of the Dhyänibuddha shown together with the goddess in our manuscript. The statements made above allow 7 us to conclude that up to the end of the seventeenth century the order and the representation of the PancaraJcsä group was not yet developed into a uniform system, allowing the alternative use of at least two systems. According to such points of view we classify and describe the portraits of the manuscript in the following, putting the diverging data of the Sädhanamälä and the Nispannayogävali into parentheses. We have not considered the remaining data which lack a unitary system. 1. Mahäpratisarä (Fig. 1). Incantation against special evils, bodily perils and sins. The goddess has white (yellow T ) colour, she is the spiritual emanation of Vairocana (Ratnasambhava), her element is the ether (the earth). She sits on a throne of flowering lotus in a ,,meditating" posture, dhyänäsana. She has three heads and eight arms. She holds her tw 7 o natural arms in front of her breast, her hand is in a „teaching" position, dharmacaJcra-mudrä, so that there is a calera symbolizing the wheel of the Doctrine in her right and a noose in her left hand. Proceeding from the lower one w 7 e see a thunderbolt, vajra, an arrow, a flaming sword in her right hands, a trident, a bow r and an elephantgoad in the left ones. Behind her figure decorated with splendid ornaments, one may see a radiating sun.
