Prajñāpāramitā Devī
Buddhist goddess / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prajñāpāramitā Devī (Sanskrit: प्रज्ञापारमिता देवी, lit. 'Perfection of Wisdom Goddess'; Tibetan: ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་མ, abbr. ཤེར་ཕྱིན་མ, Wylie: shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin ma, abbr. sher phyin ma) is a Mahayana Buddhist deity which is the personification of Prajñāpāramitā (the perfection of wisdom, transcendent knowledge).[1] This is the highest kind of wisdom in Mahayana which leads to Buddhahood and is the source of Buddhahood. This is the key topic of the Prajñāpāramitā sutras, and as such, Prajñāpāramitā Devī is also a personification of these important scriptures. She is also known as "Mother of Buddhas" (Sanskrit: बुद्धमातृ, romanized: Buddhamātṛ) or "The Great Mother" (Tibetan: ཡུམ་ཆེན་མོ, Wylie: yum chen mo).[2][3][4]
She is an important figure in Esoteric Buddhism (Vajrayāna) and appears in various esoteric Buddhist sources, like the Sādhanamāla, Niṣpannayogāvali, the Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa tantra, Dhāranisamuccaya, Mañjusrimūlakalpa, and the Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra.[1] Prajñāpāramitā Devī was widely depicted in Indian Buddhist art from around the 9th to 12th centuries, particularly in the art of the Pala Empire. She is also widely found in the Buddhist art of other regions like Java, Cambodia, Tibet and the Himalayan region.[1] Himalayan and Tibetan art may depict her as either a bodhisattva or as a Buddha.[1]