Flower ssymbolism

[Guest guest]

Many Thanks to Ms. Vibha Arora for giving

references on flower symbolism. I'm interested in more

of flower, plant and color symbolism ref.s in India and elsewhere.

 

Vibha Arora wrote

>By the way there is lot of Lotus symbolism in Tibetan

>culture which is incidentally reverses the Indic

>culture, so I guess knowing one makes the

>understanding of the other easy...

 

S. Hodge wrote:

<<<

Not quiet sure you mean by this statement -- "reflects" for

"reverses" perhaps ? Since lotuses are not exactly common in

Tibet, it is hardly surprising that their symbolism, as with

much else, has much in common with Indian, specifically Buddhist,

antecedents.

>>>

 

on 31-oct-2000, S. Hodge:

<<

Somewhat later, and thus giving rise to the early tantric three-buddha

family scheme, one finds `Shaakyamuni flanked by Vajrapaa.ni paired

with Avalokite`svara -- one with a vajra and the other with a lotus.

The possible covert sexual symbolism here should be obvious

>>

 

Reading sangam texts, one finds that red lotus stands as a symbol

for prostitutes, and the hero's exploits with them. Hero will be

a buffalo or elephant etc. Lotus, a symbol of the sun, parallels the

Eye, and Indra VajrapANi is given 1000 eyes in classical tamil texts.

 

"aNagku uTai vaccirattOn2 Ayiram kaN Eykkum" - kali. 105:15

 

Lotus/Eye/yoni on VajrapANi can be contrasted with vajra-holding

tantra goddesses like mAmakI. Note that vajra (lightning,

thunderbolt) are routinely compared with the waist of women in CT

texts. "min2 iTai" or "min2 maruGkul" in 2000 years old tamil works.

 

Given that Lokesh Chandra writes that vajrayAna was connected with

Kanchipuram of the South in Lokesh Chandra, oDDiyANa: A new

interpretation L. Sternbach fel. vol., part I, Lucknow, 1979, and

I have seen a paper by L. Chandra who interprets that Borobudur

is a vajarayAna maNDalam. Possibly, borobudur = vihAra + pudUr

(= new settlement/village in tamil).

 

Another possible vajrayAna birthplace is KaveripaTTaNam, the old town

where the mouth of the river Kaveri. Merchants routinely went out

from K.paTTaNam towards Southeast Asia (cf. CilappatikAram,

Manimekalai epics). Sudhana, the young merchant meets the grammarian

Megha in DramiDapaTTanam in gaNDavyUhasUtram. The dramiDapaTTaNam is

called Vajrapura in GV.

 

The name "maNi-mEkhalA", the sea goddess and the daughter of the

gaNikA in buddhist epic, can be interpreted as "maNi+padmA".

Snake hood is represented in S. Indian art (cf. P. Rawson or Ajit

Mookerjee, Kundalini) and caGkam literature as yoni. There is a

consistent myth in sangam texts about snakes bearing/giving

jewels(maNi). I wonder whether the sangam era myth of "maNi in

cobra hood" is related with vajra+padma(=maNi+mEkhalA) tantram..

 

I have suggested that this Dravidian religion is told in ancient

Sanskrit. karkoTaka "gemstone giver".

 

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind9911&L=indology&P=R17156

 

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind9911&L=indology&P=R17553

 

maNimat:

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind9912&L=indology&P=R9658

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind0011&L=indology&P=R14278

 

 

Any comments welcome,

N. Ganesan

 

_______________

Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com