Vidyadhara Demigods Assure Ellora Buddhist Cave 2 of Joyful Goodness

Summary: Vidyadhara demigods account for the joyful goodness that abounds in six artistically carved appearances in Ellora Buddhist Cave 2 in Maharashtra, India.

Dvarapalas (guardians) flank the door to Ellora Buddhist Cave 2; Saturday, March 4, 2017, 23:02: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Vidyadhara demigods as six artfully, artistically carved apparitions anciently added and attracted joyful goodness to Ellora Buddhist Cave 2 in the fifth- through 13th-century Ellora Caves of Maharashtra state, western peninsular India.

Vidyadhara (from Sanskrit विद्या, "wisdom" and आधार, "holder") minor deities bear joyful goodness as upadeva (from Sanskrit उप, "lesser" and देव, "deity") spirits of the air. Hindu (from Sanskrit सिन्धु, "river, stream") mythology clusters Vidyadhara demigods with deva (from Sanskrit देव, "deity") and ganadeva (from Sanskrit गण, "troop" and देव, "deity") minor deities. Deva, ganadeva and upadeva demigods dwell in the Swarga (from Sanskrit स्वर्ग, "[Indra's] paradise") heaven, topmost of three Hindu mythological lower worlds, of the Hindu storm god.

Buddhist (from Sanskrit बुद्ध, "awakened") and Hindu mythologies sometimes equate, sometimes not, even as the former extracts Hindu storm god Indra (from Sanskrit इन्द्र, "raindrop-possessing") equivalently.

Ellora Buddhist Cave 2 faithfully furnishes Vidyadhara demigods from flowerful, music-filled Swarga of storm god Indra, whom Buddhist mythologies feature as Sakra (from Sanskrit शक्र, "mighty").

Buddhist mythology glimpses Vidyadhara demigods gathering flowers and generating musically joyful goodness in the Khandava forest, in the Malabar hills, on Gandhamandhana and on Mount Krauncha. Vidyadhara demigods honor the Buddhist Sakra and the Hindu Indra and huddle on Gandhamandhana with bird-legged, bird-tailed, bird-winged, horse-faced, human-armed, human-headed, human-torsoed Kinnara instrumentalists and vocalists. Their behavioral repertoires include aerial flight and, imitative in its immediacy, preserver god Vishnu's (from Sanskrit विष्णु, "all-pervasive") fifth avatar (from Sanskrit अवतार, "descent"), instant resizing.

The dwarf avatar Vamana (from Sanskrit वामन, "dwarf") and Vidyadhara demigods respectively journey judiciously between compact and jumbo and between more and even more diminutive physiques.

Perhaps Kubera (from Sanskrit कुबेर, "bad-limbed"), as Buddhist bodyguard and Hindu god of wealth, and Vamana kindle the many carved dwarfs in Ellora Buddhist Cave 2.

Perhaps Vidyadhara demigods loving flowering plants launched the carved legions of lovely flowers and lotuses (Nelumbo nucifera) in the hands of sculpted attendants, celestials and guardians. A modestly dressed guardian, as main shrine dvarapala (from Sanskrit द्वार, "doorway" and द्पाल, "protector"), manifests the enlightening lotus of self-enlightened 35-year-old Siddhartha Gautama (644?-524 B.C.E.?). Siddhartha Gautama (from Sanskrit सिद्धार्थ, "successful" and गोतम, "light [dispels] darkness") nestled atop a lotus plant for 28-day-long nudges from enlightenment-seeking prince into enlightened Gautama Buddha.

Siddhartha Gautama opted for the cross-legged, lotus-seated padmasana (from Sanskrit पद्म, "lotus" and आसन, "seat") until he observed the Four Holy Truths and the Holy Eightfold Path.

Ellora Buddhist Cave 2 presents Gautama Buddha as a padmasana-posed preacher, atop a throne whose corners poise atop four lions (Panthera leo), and on his feet.

Itinerant artisans under Kalachuri (from Sanskrit कलचुरि) dynasts (550?-before 687 C.E.?) queued Gautama carvings from his 550 bodhisattva (from Sanskrit बोधि, "enlightenment" and सत्त्व, "sentient being") reincarnations. They realized bodhisattva reincarnations, of whom the 550th rendered Gautama Buddha from Siddhartha Gautama, and trader-relevant dwarf representations for itinerant merchants and monks during Ellora resi

Ellora Buddhist Cave 2, third-oldest Ellora Buddhist dormitory after Ellora Buddhist Caves 5 and 6, transmitted the joyful goodness of six Vidyadhara demigods to enlightenment-seeking traders.

decorated columns in Ellora Buddhist Cave 2; 2002: G41m8, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Dvarapalas (guardians) flank the door to Ellora Buddhist Cave 2; Saturday, March 4, 2017, 23:02: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:114_Cave_2,_Facade_(33769893270).jpg; Anandajoti Bhikkhu (Anandajoti), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/anandajoti/33769893270/

decorated columns in Ellora Buddhist Cave 2; 2002: G41m8, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellora_Cave_2_si0183.jpg

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