e general. Manjusri,[20] the Great Being or "Prince Royal,"
is the personification of wisdom, and especially of the mystic religious
insight which has produced the Great Vehicle or canon of Northern
Buddhism; or, as a Japanese author says, the third collection of the
Tripitaka was that made by Manjusri and Maitreya. Avalokitesvara,[21]
the Lord of View or All-sided One, is the personification of power, the
merciful protector and preserver of the world and of men. Both are
frequently and voluminously mentioned in the Saddharma Pundarika,[22] in
which the good law is made plain by flowers of rhetoric, and of which we
shall have occasion frequently to speak. Manjusri is the mythical author
of this influential work,[23] the twenty-fourth chapter being devoted to
a glorification of the character, the power, and the advantages to be
derived from the worship of Avalokitesvara.

The Creation of Gods.

Possibly the name of Manjusri may be derived from that of the Indian
mendicant, the traditional introducer of Buddhism and its accompanying
civilization into Nepal. The Tibetans identify him with the minister of
a great King Strongstun, who lived in the seventh century of our era and
who was the great patron of Buddhism into Tibet. He is the founder of
that school of thought which ended in the Great Vehicle,--the literature
of Northern Buddhism.[24] From Nepal to Japan, in the books of the
Northern Buddhists there is certainly much confusion between the
metaphysical being and the legendary civilizer and teacher of Nepal. The
other name, Avalokitesvara, which means the Lord of View, "the lord who
looks down from on high," instead of being a purely metaphysical
invention, may he only an adaptation of one epithet of Shiva, which
meant Master of View.

Later and by degrees the attributes were separated and each one was
personified. For example, the power of Avalokitesvara was separated from
his protecting care and providence. His power was personified as the
bearer of the thunder-bolt, or the lightning-handed one; and this new
personification added to the two other Buddhas elect, made a triad, the
first in Northern Buddhism. In this triad, the thunder-bolt holder was
Vagrapani; Manjusri was the deified teacher; and Avalokitesvara was the
Spirit of the Buddhas present in the church. Before many centuries had
elapsed, these imaginary beings, with a few others, had become gods to
whom men prayed; and thus Buddhism became a religion