nt to Gotama are introduced much
like ancient kings as part of the legendary history of this world. But
in the Lalita-vistara (Chap. XX) and the Lotus (Chap. VII) we hear of
Buddhas, usually described as Tathagatas, who apparently do not belong
to this world at all, but rule various points of the compass, or
regions described as Buddha-fields (Buddha-kshetra). Their names are
not the same in the different accounts and we remain dazzled by an
endless panorama of an infinity of universes with an infinity of
shining Buddhas, illuminating infinite space.

Somewhat later five of these unearthly Buddhas were formed into a
pentad and described as Jinas[74] or Dhyani Buddhas (Buddhas of
contemplation), namely, Vairocana, Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha
and Amoghasiddhi. In the fully developed form of this doctrine these
five personages are produced by contemplation from the Adi-Buddha or
original Buddha spirit and themselves produce various reflexes,
including Bodhisattvas, human Buddhas and goddesses like Tara. The
date when these beliefs first became part of the accepted Mahayana
creed cannot be fixed but probably the symmetrical arrangement of five
Buddhas is not anterior to the tantric period[75] of Buddhism.

The most important of the five are Vairocana and Amitabha. Akshobhya
is mentioned in both the Lotus and Smaller Sukhavati-vyuha as the
chief Buddha of the eastern quarter, and a work purporting to be a
description of his paradise still extant in Chinese[76] is said to
have been translated in the time of the Eastern Han dynasty. But even
in the Far East he did not find many worshippers. More enduring has
been the glory of Vairocana who is the chief deity of the Shingon sect
in Japan and is represented by the gigantic image in the temple at
Nara. In Java he seems to have been regarded as the principal and
supreme Buddha. The name occurs in the Mahavastu as the designation of
an otherwise unknown Buddha of luminous attributes and in the Lotus we
hear of a distant Buddha-world called Vairocana-rasmi-pratimandita,
embellished by the rays of the sun.[77] Vairocana is clearly a
derivative of Virocana, a recognized title of the sun in Sanskrit, and
is rendered in Chinese by Ta-jih meaning great Sun. How this solar
deity first came to be regarded as a Buddha is not known but the
connection between a Buddha and light has always been recognized. Even
the Pali texts represent Gotama as being luminous on some occasions
and in