ntellectual virtues through countless existences, but
subsequently they came to be regarded as emanations or sons of
superhuman Buddhas. Thus the Karanda-vyuha relates how the original
Adi-Buddha produced Avalokita by meditation and how he in his turn
produced the universe with its gods.

Millions of unnamed Bodhisattvas are freely mentioned and even in the
older books copious lists of names are found,[16] but two, Avalokita
and Manjusri, tower above the rest, among whom only few have a
definite personality. The tantric school counts eight of the first
rank. Maitreya (who does not stand on the same footing as the others),
Samantabhadra, Mahasthana-prapta and above all Kshitigarbha, have some
importance, especially in China and Japan.

Avalokita[17] in many forms and in many ages has been one of the
principal deities of Asia but his origin is obscure. His main
attributes are plain. He is the personification of divine mercy and
pity but even the meaning of his name is doubtful. In its full form it
is Avalokitesvara, often rendered the Lord who looks down (from
heaven). This is an appropriate title for the God of Mercy, but the
obvious meaning of the participle _avalokita_ in Sanskrit is passive,
the Lord who is looked at. Kern[18] thinks it may mean the Lord who is
everywhere visible as a very present help in trouble, or else the Lord
of View, like the epithet Drishtiguru applied to Siva. Another form
of the name is Lokesvara or Lord of the world and this suggests that
_avalokita_ may be a synonym of _loka_, meaning the visible universe.
It has also been suggested that the name may refer to the small image
of Amitabha which is set in his diadem and thus looks down on him. But
such small images set in the head of a larger figure are not
distinctive of Avalokita: they are found in other Buddhist statues and
paintings and also outside India, for instance at Palmyra. The Tibetan
translation of the name[19] means he who sees with bright eyes. Hsuean
Chuang's rendering Kwan-tzu-tsai[20] expresses the same idea, but the
more usual Chinese translation Kuan-yin or Kuan-shih-yin, the deity
who looks upon voices or the region of voices, seems to imply a verbal
misunderstanding. For the use of Yin or voice makes us suspect that
the translator identified the last part of _Avalokitesvara_ not with
_Isvara_ lord but with _svara_ sound.[21]

Avalokitesvara is unknown to the Pali Canon and the Milinda Panha. So
far as I can discover he