Thousand-Armed Ushnishasitatapattra

This image was lying in my computer’s picture folder for a long time – before I thought of sharing this with my readers here. I found this picture from the website called Exotic India. The claim that was made about this was that this was the picture of the most complex goddess in Buddhist pantheon. As per legend, the goddess Ushnishasitatapattra is the female formation of god Avalokiteshvara, who also possesses the same “thousand-arms” physique. While you can read more about the goddess and her divinities in the website, I would just like to close this note by mentioning that the concept of a “thousand-armed” humanoid being is not unique only for Avalokiteshvara and Ushnishasitatapattra. Everyone knows about king Ravana from the hindu epic Ramayana, who had ten heads and twenty hands. However, in the other hindu epic Mahabharata, we read the story of emperor Sahasrarjuna, who also had a thousand hands – and he could stop the flow of the river Ganges with his hands, among his other greater achievements. Legends even say that emperor Sahasrarjuna had once defeated king Ravana – the poor demon could not stand a chance against 50 times more hands than his! You can read more of this legend in the SSKNA website.

Image courtesies: Websites mentioned.

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