vehicles of Brahma

Richard Thomas rg.thomas at UWS.EDU.AU
Mon May 15 02:59:27 UTC 2000


Does anyone know of a literary reference to Brahma being associated with a
bear?
I am investigating the archaeology of a 10th century Buddhist temple in SE
Asia and in particular the vidyaraja figures that appear as four temple
guardians. The four stand on animals which represent the crushing of the
various gods who are difficult to convert. Three of these are (at their
highest level) crushing the vehicles of Narayana, Sakra and Mahesvara but I
do not understand the reference to Brahma represented as a bear (or beast)
which would seem to be be implied in the fourth of these four figures. Any
references to a literary justification for this association would be very
helpful.

Richard Thomas





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