Browse Archive Items (20 total)

Limestone image of Tara

Description: Also from southern Sri Lanka but of more modest proportions, is this lime-stone Tara image in the round. It was originally found in a temple at Siyambalagasvila in the Hambantota district, Sri Lanka. Displaying the usual simplicity of dress associated with Tara images in Sri Lanka, she has her hair piled up in a crowning coiffure ‘jata makuta’. The statue may belong to the 8th to the 10th century A.D. phase of Mahayana Buddhism in Sri Lanka. This sculpture is found in the National Museum,…
Contributor: Co-Author: Seneviratna, Harsha

Tara as consort of Avalokiteśvara

Description: This group of colossal Mahayana stone reliefs is seen at Buduruvagala, Sri Lanka. Standing on his left, Tara is shown as the female companion of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The simple drapery, the lack of ornamentation and the piled up hair are among the more common characteristics of Tara images noticed at Buduruvagala, Sri Lanka too. The goddess carries a vessel in her left hand. It is dated approximately to the period between the 7th and 10th centuries on stylistic grounds.
Contributor: Co-Author: Seneviratna, Harsha

Rock painting of Tara

Description: In a different medium is this representation of Tara found painted on a rock boulder at Kotgalkanda, 8 ½ miles from Sigiriya, Sri Lanka. This is an artist's re-production of it, available at the Post-Graduate Institute of Archaeology in Colombo. Seated in an attitude of meditation, the image is barely visible in outline. She carries a water-lily, a traditional symbol of Tara. Somewhat heavily ornamented, it reflects a departure from the usual austerity associated with Tara images in Sri Lanka.…
Contributor: Co-Author: Seneviratna, Harsha

Bronze statue of Tara

Description: Among the Mahayana bronze images found at Tiriyay, Sri Lanka, is this standing statue of Tara now exhibited in the Colombo National Museum. She wears some ornaments, but on the whole there is a total lack of ostentation. This image at Tiriyay, Sri Lanka, is dated to the late Anuradhapura period (9th to the 10th centuries A.D.), when the worship of Mahayana gods and goddesses was popularly practiced according to historians.
Contributor: Co-Author: Seneviratna, Harsha

Bronze image of Tara

Description: Housed in the Archaeological Museum, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, is this miniature bronze of Tara seated in a partly cross-legged posture known as ‘ardhaparyanka’. Her right hand is broken and so is the flower which seems to have rested against her, of which only the stalk remains. The statue is dated to about the 9th century A.D. on stylistic grounds.
Contributor: Co-Author: Seneviratna, Harsha

Silver alloy statue of Tara

Description: This miniature silver alloy image of Tara in the Anuradhapura Archaeological Museum has been identified as ‘Janguli Tara’, the goddess who protects people from calamities such as snake-bite. She carries a cobra in her hand and has four seated Buddhas carved round her head-dress. It was discovered near Mannar, Sri Lanka. It may be ascribed to the 8th to the 10th century period, the heyday of Mahayana Buddhism in Sri Lanka according to historians.
Contributor: Co-Author: Seneviratna, Harsha

Silver statue is of Tara

Description: Originally from the Gangaramaya temple in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka, this seated silver statue of Tara. She sits in meditation, a rare pose for Tara images. Except for certain head ornaments and an empty socket in her hair arrangement which could have contained a Buddha statue, she wears no other adornments. Art historians have ascribed the image to about the 8th century A.D. on stylistic grounds. This statue is found in the National Museum, Colombo.
Contributor: Co-Author: Seneviratna, Harsha

Tara, a replica

Description: This is a replica of the British Museum image of Tara. The unadorned, yet aesthetically pleasing image, wears a high hair-do, at the centre of which is an empty socket. It may have contained a miniature seated Buddha statue traditionally associated with Bodhisattva images. Originally found near Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, it is the tallest Buddhist female bronze image discovered in Sri Lanka and may represent an instance where Tara was worshipped in her own right as Bodhisattva. Various dates…
Contributor: Co-Author: Seneviratna, Harsha

Tara, guilded bronze image

Description: The major religious influence in Sri Lanka was Theravada Buddhism which provided no scope for any being other than the Buddha to be worshipped as cult object. However, the country did feel the impact of the Mahayana and Tantrayana forms of Buddhism where Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and their female elements or saktis and consorts were worshipped. It is in the context of these two systems that one finds the elevation of the female as cult object within Buddhist ideology, and the visual expression of…
Contributor: Co-Author: Seneviratna, Harsha

The female as cult object in Buddhism

Description: The female as cult object in Buddhism: The well known text titled Sādhanamālā provides an early description of the female as cult object in Buddhism. Sādhanamālā edited by Bhattacharya and published by Baroda in 2 volumes, 1925-1928.
Contributor: Co-Author: Seneviratna, Harsha