The large silk painting (Ch. lvi. 0019), reproduced in this Plate on a scale of slightly less than one-fourth of the original, may rank among the richest of the Collection in respect of decorative effect and colouring, and fortunately has survived in very fair preservation. It represents Avalokiteśvara in his thousand-armed and eleven-headed form, surrounded by numerous groups of divinities constituting his ‘Maṇḍala’. The scheme is repeated on somewhat simpler lines in another fine painting, shown by Plate xlii. Elaborate as its representation is in ours, its interpretation is facilitated by the Chinese inscriptions attached to all the principal divine figures which appear in attendance on the great Bodhisattva of Mercy. Helped by these inscriptions M. Petrucci has been able to discuss at length the numerous and interesting questions of iconographic detail which are raised by figures in this and similar sumptuous compositions, and to his explanations and to the full description contained in Serindia reference may conveniently be made here.43

In the centre of the painting we see Avalokiteśvara’s large figure surrounded by a nimbus-like disc. This is formed by his outer hands making up the theoretical number of a thousand, and each showing an open eye marked on the palm. Avalokiteśvara’s thousand arms, arranged in this fashion, are well known, too, to the later Buddhist iconography of India and meant to symbolize the merciful divinity’s desire to save all human beings at the same time. The Bodhisattva is shown seated on a lotus and under a richly tasselled canopy. His inner hands, apart from the four in front, hold a multiplicity of well-known sacred emblems, including the discs of the Sun and Moon, flasks of ambrosia, conch, willow spray, trident, Vajra, the Wheel of the Law, mace, &c. From the centre pair of inner hands a shaft of rainbow light streams upwards. His flesh is yellow, as usual, shaded with pink; his hair blue, of the same shade as the general background. Of the small subsidiary heads, two of demonic appearance are shown by the side of the ears and the rest in three tiers above the tiara.

Among the attendant divinities we see at the top of the canopy the Bodhisattvas of the Sun and Moon seated behind their five white geese and five white horses respectively. In the upper corners appear on finely painted clouds the ‘Buddhas of the ten quarters of the Universe’, arranged as all the attendant deities in symmetrical groups. Below them are seated pairs of Bodhisattvas with elaborate flower-decked haloes and nimbi. Beneath them come on the right Indra with three attendants, and on the left Brahman with two. All are shown kneeling and wearing Chinese official dress of a rich type. Beneath again are shown two monstrous divinities, both unmistakably Śivaitic. On the right Mahākāla with three heads and six arms reclines on the back of Śiva’s bull. On the left Maheśvara, of demonic appearance, stands with legs apart upon a crocodile-headed snake; his middle hands grasp pike and cords which hold two half-naked humans.

Below the lotus seat of Avalokiteśvara are seen emaciated pretas or beings in hell clutching with outstretched hands at showers of white grains (ambrosia) which Avalokiteśvara pours on them. In front of his lotus seat lies a tank in which stand two stalwart Nāgas upholding the stem of the lotus. They are in human shape, but carry above their heads a crest formed of five snake-heads, their ancient Indian emblem. Besides smaller Nāga figures of the same type the tank holds an infant soul (now almost destroyed) rising from a lotus.

The bottom corners are occupied on each side by a larger group of attendants. The central figure in each case is a four-armed female divinity of beneficent aspect, dressed like a Bodhisattva and seated on a bird. The one on the right rides on a phoenix and is followed by a Buddha. The female deity behind him is of interest, as from the children in her arms she may be recognized as the goddess Hāritī, whom a pious Indian legend represents as a wicked ogress converted into a patroness of children.44 The female divinity on the left is riding on a peacock, with two attendants behind her who in the absence of attributes or inscriptions remain unidentified. Lower down on either side are seen standing two Lokapālas, Kings of the Quarters, in armour, and in each of the bottom corners a demonic Vajrapāṇi, six-armed and serpent-decked, straddling against a background of flames. At the feet of each sits a smaller demon with a boar’s head. Before the Lokapālas and close to the edge of the tank are seated on the right an emaciated old man in ascetic garb, and on the left a richly-robed nymph offering flowers. Both these figures, described elsewhere as the ‘Sage of the Air (?)’ and ‘Nymph of Virtue’, are with particular clearness seen again in Plate xlii.

On the iconographic side the interest of this sumptuous presentation of Avalokiteśvara’s ‘Maṇḍala’ is obvious, were it only for the appearance in it of such Śivaitic deities as Mahākāla and Maheśvara. These aptly illustrate the influence which Hindu mythology, even in its later development, continued to exercise on the Buddhist Pantheon of Central Asia and the Far East. On the artistic side attention is claimed by the skill shown in the ordinance of the whole and the drawing of individual figures. But it is in particular the highly effective colour treatment which makes this picture rank with the most impressive in the Collection.