rupAvalIya

We first heard of a lankan text termed the rupAvalIya written in the 1000s of CE in a vulgar register of saMskR^ita in the works of Coomaraswamy Ananda. He thought is a H text. It has never been published but snippets have been described by him & lankan authors.

It is clear that it is text descending from a H smArta-shilpa source (perhaps of kali~Ngan vintage) that has been reworked into a bauddha context. That is clear because it devotes considerable detail to the iconography of avalokiteshvara in his different forms popular in old lanka. But this bauddha deity is embedded within an extensive iconographic account covering sarasvatI; brahman; various forms of rudra & rudrANI; skanda& vinAyaka; various vibhava-s of viShNu& lakShmI & interestingly vaTuka. Thus it is mostly standard smArta type rUpamaNDana but the emphasis on vaTuka-bhairava independent of skanda is notable & points to a lateral influence from a kaula tradition. It also gives the specifications of other ornamental figures like makara-s, horses, elephants& the like.

The process of absorption into the nAstika tradition indicated by a related text found in lankA termed the shArIputra which from the name is attributed to the v1 convert of the tathAgata. The lankan tradition holds that when shArIputra asked the tathAgata as to what the saMgha should do once he died, the shauddhodana declared that they should make giant images of his and worship them.

However, what is notable is that the images in rUpAvalIya are of avalokiteshvara indicating that the original nAstika-s absorbing the smArta shilpa were the now gone mahAyana worshipers of old lankA. The sthaviravAdin-s who won interestingly transformed him from a bodhisattva to the future buddha maitreya. This parallels the retention of the mahAyAna bodhisattva samantabhadra in the lankan religion as one of the protectors of the island.