| Notes | [S.] var. bajradhātu-maṇḍala, vajradhātu-mandaḥ (New.); n. one of the most popular maṇḍalas in the Kathmandu Valley. Many of the caityas found here have been constructed based on the vajradhātumaṇḍala. Vairocana is the central deity of this maṇḍala and generally displayed with four faces and eight arms, thus taking the form of Vajradhātu (Bhattacharyya 1958: 54). The caityas constructed on the basis of the vajradhātumaṇḍala are known as vajradhātucaityas. Altogether, a vajradhātumaṇḍala consists of 53 deities, including, but not limited to, the pañcabuddha and their consorts, as well as the 16 great Bodhisattvas (Tachikawa 1991: 1074). |
