VajrapĀṆi
VAJRAPĀṆI. "As for Vajrapāṇi … I confess to finding him by far the most interesting divine being throughout the whole history of Buddhism, for he has a personal history and considerable personal character." David Snellgrove's words were published in his magnum opus, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism (p. 134) in 1987, the year of this encyclopedia's first edition. Only now has Vajrapāṇi (Tib., Phyag na rdo rje [Chagna dorje]) gained his own independent entry. His promotion in the secondary literature echoes his unparalleled rise within the history of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism (with successes also in Central Asian, Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Japanese Buddhisms). From a half-tamed spirit who became the Buddha's constant companion, this protean shape-shifter graduates first into a bodhisattva and then into a deity before transcending everything as the primordial Ādibuddha, Vajradhara. However, Vajrapāṇi's progress extends backwards too, before Buddhism, to the beginnings of Sanskrit literature, the Vedas.
Indo-European Etymology and Divinity
In Sanskrit, vajrapāṇi means "he who has a vajra in hand." The word vajra refers to a thunderbolt, thunder crash, or lightning flash, and to its embodiment in unbreakable diamond (cf. the Tibetan neologistic translation Rdo rje [dor je], "Lord of Stones") and the invincible weapon made thereof.
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