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A domical ceiling, with several circular courses, in the south portico in the Vimalavasähi temple. On one corner there is a an image of lalitasana Gaja-Laksmi.
by a deity. By the second century the lotus was adopted as a seat for the Buddha himself, certainly in Gandhara and probably in Mathura as well as in Buddhist monuments in Andhra. The flower was given to the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara long before it became an emblem of Viṣņu. In early Buddhist literature the lotus is used as a metaphor for essence (pudgala; pundarika), and one of the early Mahayana texts is called the 'Lotus of the True Religion' or Padma Sutra. Thus in the Buddhist context the lotus symbolises the faith itself and would be an appropriate attribute for Avalokitesvara. In later Buddhist iconography the lotus certainly is often used as a support for other emblems such
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