Which one of the following statements about the Buddhist Goddess Hariti is correct?

Correct — A, She was converted by the Buddha from a blood-thirsty yakshi to a benevolent maternal figure. Hariti's story is one of the best known conversion narratives in Buddhism. She was a yakshi who stole and devoured the children of others in order to feed her own enormous brood. When the people of Rajagriha appealed to the Buddha, he hid the youngest and dearest of her own children; Hariti searched in anguish, and when she came to him in grief he asked her to consider what she had done to the countless mothers whose children she had taken. She understood, and was converted — becoming the protector of children and of childbirth, and a guardian of Buddhist monasteries, where she was given offerings at mealtimes. That is the whole shape of the figure: a devourer turned protector, which is why she is shown as a full, maternal woman surrounded by infants, often paired with her consort Panchika. Sculptures of her are common in the Gandhara and Mathura schools, and the type is one of the clearest instances of a local yaksha cult being absorbed into Buddhism rather than suppressed by it.

• (b)She is the feminine personification of wisdom. — That is Prajnaparamita, the 'perfection of wisdom' personified as a goddess and called the mother of all Buddhas. A different figure with a different iconography.
• (c)She protects people from eight great fears. — Protection from the eight great fears — lions, elephants, fire, snakes, robbers, imprisonment, shipwreck and demons — belongs to Tara, one of the most widely worshipped Buddhist goddesses.
• (d)She is a warrior goddess associated with the dawn. — No Buddhist goddess is described this way. The option borrows the dawn association from Vedic Ushas and adds a martial character that fits neither figure.

Hariti belongs to the class of yakshas and yakshis — local nature spirits of fertility, wealth and place, worshipped in India long before Buddhism and never displaced by it. Buddhism absorbed a great many of these figures, and Hariti is the clearest case: a dangerous spirit converted by the Buddha and given a protective role within the tradition. She is shown as a matronly woman with children about her, sometimes holding an infant, frequently paired with Panchika, a yaksha general of wealth. Images of her are especially numerous in Gandhara, where the treatment is strongly Hellenistic in style.

The four options here are really four different Buddhist goddesses, and the question is testing whether their attributes stay attached to the right names. The efficient method is to place the attributes rather than the names: wisdom personified is Prajnaparamita, protection from the eight great fears is Tara, and neither of those is in dispute. Once both are assigned elsewhere, options (b) and (c) are gone, and option (d) describes nothing in the Buddhist pantheon at all. What remains is the story that actually attaches to Hariti. It is worth holding on to for its own sake, because it illustrates a real historical process: Buddhism spread partly by taking in the local cults it met, giving their deities a place and a role inside the new framework rather than declaring war on them. Hariti's shrine at a monastery gate, receiving food offerings, is that process made visible.

• Hariti was a yakshi who devoured other people's children to feed her own, and was converted by the Buddha, who hid her youngest child so that she would feel what she had inflicted.
• After her conversion she became the protector of children and of childbirth, and a guardian figure at Buddhist monasteries.
• She is depicted as a maternal woman surrounded by infants, often paired with her consort Panchika, a yaksha of wealth.
• Hariti images are especially common in the Gandhara and Mathura schools of sculpture.
• Prajnaparamita is wisdom personified, called the mother of all Buddhas; Tara is the goddess who protects from the eight great fears.
• Yakshas and yakshis are pre-Buddhist nature spirits that Buddhism absorbed rather than displaced.

• Mixing up the Buddhist goddesses — wisdom is Prajnaparamita, the eight great fears belong to Tara.
• Assuming a figure called a yakshi must remain a malevolent spirit; the conversion is the whole point of Hariti.
• Reading Hariti as a Vedic or Puranic goddess; she belongs to the yaksha class absorbed by Buddhism.

As a single-correct statement item distinguishing Buddhist goddesses, or as a match between deity and attribute. Gandhara iconography is asked alongside it.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In Buddhist iconography, protection from the 'eight great fears' is associated with which goddess?

  • (a)Hariti
  • (b)Tara
  • (c)Prajnaparamita
  • (d)Vasudhara

  Answer(b) Tara — invoked against lions, elephants, fire, snakes, robbers, imprisonment, shipwreck and demons.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Hariti is most often depicted in Buddhist sculpture in the company of

  • (a)children
  • (b)lions
  • (c)musicians
  • (d)elephants

  Answer(a) children — after her conversion she becomes the protector of children and of childbirth, and is shown as a maternal figure surrounded by infants.