Earth and Space News: Ashtamahabhaya Tara Averts Ellora Buddhist Cave 9 Adversity

Summary: Ellora Buddhist Cave 9 in Maharashtra, India, addresses eight adversities that a sculpted, compassionate goddess, Ashtamahabhaya Tara, answered anciently.

detail of elaborately decorated façade of Ellora Buddhist Cave 9; Wikimedia Commons page created Sunday, Sep. 30, 2018, 23:15:27, via UploadWizard: RahulDhawale99, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Ellora Buddhist Cave 9 in Maharashtra state, western peninsular India, alone archives in the western Deccan (from Sanskrit dakshina, दक्षिणा, "south, southern") area an anciently carved and sculpted compassionate goddess, Ashtamahabhaya Tara.

Tantric (from Sanskrit तन्त्र, "loom") Buddhist (from Sanskrit बुद्ध, "awakened") goddess Tara (from Sanskrit तारा, "to cross") of karuna (from Sanskrit करुणा, "compassion") battles eight burdens. Tantric Buddhism colors Tara blue, red or yellow for conduct other than compassionate as Khadiravani (from Sanskrit खदिरवणी, "acacia forest") or Saraswati (from Sanskrit सरस्वती, "speech"). It details green-bodied Khadiravani Tara as defender against the ashtamahabhaya (from Sanskrit अष्टा, "eight"; महा, "great"; and भय, "dread") and white-bodied Saraswati as dispenser of longevity.

Tantric Buddhism establishes lions (Panthera leo) as one of eight enormous evils for expressing natural enmity toward humankind and vice versa, and for epitomizing evil pride.

The only anciently sculpted Ashtamahabhaya Tara in West Deccan fits into Ellora Buddhist Cave 9 to finish human fears of such ferocities as fighting wild elephants.

Symbolically generating group and individual delusions and ignorance gets wild elephants (Elephas maximus indicus) on Tantric Buddhist guides to eight megadangers against which Ashtamahabhaya Tara guards. The compassionate green-bodied Tantric Buddhist goddess, by hindering fiery harm, helps humankind to harvest the longevity that the compassionate white-bodied Tantric Buddhist goddess has for them. Fire whether impelled accidentally or intentionally, initiated by humankind or by nature, involving large or small scales, high or low intensities symbolically indicates anger and hatred.

Snake members of the Squamata (from Latin squamatus, "scaly) lizard, serpent, worm lizard order join animals, catastrophes, evildoers and experiences for counterproductive misbehavior and natural enmity.

Perhaps Ashtamahabhaya Tara keeps jealous snakes, whose ancestors knew Gautama Buddha, (624?-544 B.C.E.?, from Sanskrit गौतम, "darkness-dispelling light" and बुद्ध, "awakened") from Ellora Buddhist Cave 9.

Gautama Buddha lamented latching onto anybody, anything that someone else already lists as theirs even as Tantric Buddhism likewise labels bandits and thieves as greatly lamentable. Menacing bandits and thieves maintain fanatical misbehaviors, misdeeds, misperceptions, mis-speech and mistakes that manifest nothing of middle-path belief, intention, word, conduct, living, effort, thinking and meditation. Hinayana (from Sanskrit हीनयान, "little vehicle"), also named Theravada (from Sanskrit स्थविरवाद, "elders' doctrine"); Mahayana (from Sanskrit महायान, "great vehicle"); and Tantrayana Buddhism nurture no bondage.

Bondage offers and optimizes avaricious, miserly occasions for its operators, who obtain possessions, power and profits by obstructing others' opportunities for organizing socio-economic independence and security.

Perhaps Ashtamahabhaya Tara previously precluded, and presently prevents, each year's monsoonal floods from pummeling the predominantly Tantric Buddhist pilgrims who prioritize patronizing Ellora Buddhist Cave 9.

Disaster-quickened, flash, hurricane, monsoonal, storm and tsunami floods queue up attachment to and desire for the death-quickened, fear-quaked lives that never quit serialized sorrowful, unenlightened reincarnations. Tantric Buddhism recognizes that evil demons and spirits roam the human-relevant world where Ashtamahabhaya Tara perhaps refuses their dangerous, dreadful residence in Ellora Buddhist Cave 9. Evil demons and spirits suggest deluded doubts about Four Holy Truths about life's clinging sorrows, reincarnated desirous attachments and desire-free detachment by the Holy Eightfold Path.

Ashtamahabhaya Tara and the Holy Eightfold Path's true belief, intention, word, conduct, living, effort, thinking and meditation tackle eight adversities that trouble Ellora Buddhist Cave 9.

"Bodhisattva in Cave IX" probably depicts Manjusri, bodhisattva of prajna (wisdom), in chapel of Ellora Buddhist Cave 9; sketch by Scottish archaeologist James Burgess (Aug. 14, 1832-Oct. 3, 1916), Report on the Elura Cave Temples (1883), Plate XIII: via Internet Archive

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

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Earth and Space News

Friday, October 30, 2020

Ashtamahabhaya Tara Averts Ellora Buddhist Cave 9 Adversity

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