Avalokitesvara

Avalokiteśvara (अवलोकितेश्वर) is one of the more widely revered bodhisattvas in mainstream Mahayana Buddhism as well as unofficially in Theravada Buddhism. Avalokitesvara in Sanskrit means "Lord who looks down"

Variants

• Avalokitesvara (अवलोकितेश्वर]] (AS, p.1014)
• Avalokiteshvara
• Avalokiteswara
• Avalokiteshwara

History

When the Chinese monk Faxian traveled to Mathura in India around 400 CE, he wrote about monks presenting offerings to Avalokiteśvara. James Legge writes that in Mathura the Students of the mahayana present offerings to the Kwan-she-yin, The Chinese name is a mistranslation of the Sanskrit name Avalokitesvra.

When Xuanzang traveled to India in the 7th century, he provided eyewitness accounts of Avalokiteśvara statues being venerated by devotees of all walks of life, from kings, to monks, to lay people.

Avalokiteśvara remained popular in India until the 12th century when Muslim invaders conquered the land and destroyed Buddhist monasteries.

Identification of Kwan-she-yin

James Legge writes that in Mathura the Students of the mahayana present offerings to the Kwan-she-yin, The Chinese name is a mistranslation of the Sanskrit name Avalokitesvra.

Here James Legge admits that the translation of Kwan-she-yin in to Sanskrit as Avalokitesvra is wrong.

I tried to find the meaning of Kwan in other languages of the Buddhis region. Kwan or Guan (pinyin: Guān) is a Chinese surname. It is also a Vietnamese surname that uses the same character, romanised as Quan. The Vietnamese surname, Quan and the Japanese surname, Seki, was derived from the same Chinese character as the Chinese surname (The Japanese Kanji is a Shinjitai of the Chinese character). It is Romanized Kwon in Korean. It is also a Japanese surname, Seki that uses the same character.

Kuan Yin or Guanyin, is a short form for Kuan-shi Yin, is an East Asian deity of mercy, and a bodhisattva associated with compassion as venerated by Mahayana Buddhists. The name Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, which means "Perceiving the Sounds (or Cries) of the World".

Guānyīn is a translation from the Sanskrit Avalokitasvara, referring to the Mahāyāna bodhisattva of the same name. Another later name for this bodhisattva is Guānzìzài. It was initially thought that the Chinese mis-transliterated the word Avalokiteśvara as Avalokitasvara which explained why Xuanzang translated it as Guānzìzài instead of Guānyīn. However, the original form was indeed Avalokitasvara with the ending svara ("sound, noise"), which means "sound perceiver", literally "he who looks down upon sound" (i.e., the cries of sentient beings who need his help). This is the exact equivalent of the Chinese translation Guānyīn. This etymology was furthered in the Chinese by the tendency of some Chinese translators, notably Kumarajiva, to use the variant Guānshìyīn, literally "he who perceives the world's lamentations"—wherein lok was read as simultaneously meaning both "to look" and "world" (Skt. loka; Ch. 世, shì).

हसराकोल

हसराकोल (AS, p.1014): जिला गया, बिहार, में स्थित एक ऐतिहासिक स्थान है. हसराकोल से 9वीं शती ई. में बनी, काले पत्थर की तीन सुंदर मूर्तियाँ प्राप्त हुई थीं, जो आजकल पटना संग्रहालय में हैं। यहाँ से प्राप्त मूर्तियों में एक बड़े आकार की प्रतिमा बुद्ध की है। दूसरी अवलोकितेश्वर और तीसरी मैत्रेय की है। इन सभी मूर्तियों की निर्मिति में विवरण के प्रदर्शन की ओर विशेष ध्यान दिया गया है।

References

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