Chintamani

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Kshitigarbha brings the Chintamani Stone to the souls of the underworld for consolation and enlightenment.

Chintamani ( Sanskrit : चिन्तामणि cintāmaṇi [ tʃɪnˈtɑːmʌɳi ], 'wish jewel') is a legendary gem in Hinduism and Buddhism , which is given the power to give its owner what he longs for. In the Hindu tradition it is symbolic of the divine . In Mahayana Buddhism it is an attribute of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and allegorically stands for the power of the Dharma and the mind that has attained enlightenment . He is primarily associated with the all-good Samantabhadra , the compassionate Avalokiteshvara and Kshitigarbha , the patron saint of children and souls in the underworld, especially popular in Japan.

Iconographically, the jewel is represented either individually or in triplicate and is often surrounded by a flaming halo. The motif spread through Manichaeism , in which the Chintamani was regarded as the symbol of Manis the Redeemer, and later through Buddhist representations on stupas and wood prints from Central Asia via Turkestan to the Persian region. In the Timurid Empire it developed into a symbol of rule and was depicted on coins and coats of arms, among other things. In Ottoman art, it later became very popular in the cosmological form of the three-ball motif , especially in carpet art and less often in ceramics , especially in combination with the typical wavy lines described as clouds or tiger stripes.

literature

  • Cintāmani , in: John Bowker: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2000, ISBN 0-19-280094-9 .
  • Cintāmani , in: Damien Keown: A Dictionary of Buddhism . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-280062-0 .
  • Cintāmani , in: Encyclopedia Iranica , Volume 5, Mazda, Costa Mesa, CA 1991, p. 594, ISBN 0-939214-79-2 .
  • The Jewel of Desire: Cintamani, in: Tatjana Blau, Mirabai Blau: Buddhist Symbols . Sterling, New York, NY 2003, pp. 82f, ISBN 1-402-70033-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Snellgrove (Ed.): The Image of the Buddha . Paris, 1978, p. 258 ff.
  2. ↑ Victoria Arnold-Döben: The pictorial language of Manichaeism . Brill, Cologne, 1978, pp. 58-60.
  3. ↑ Yuka Kadoi: Çintamani. Notes on the Formation of the Turco-Iranian Style. In: Persica 21, 2007, pp. 33-49.
  4. ^ Reingard Neumann: Flower style and Çintamani. Aspects of the Ottoman decor style. In: Christian Erber (Ed.): Rich in velvet and silk. Ottoman fabrics and embroidery. Temmen, 1993, pp. 13-17.
  5. ↑ Examples of this can be found mainly on objects from the 16th and 17th centuries, see for example this blue-white and this polychrome tile, both from the inventory of the British Museum .