This page groups deities by the scripture or sacred text where they are first or most clearly named, the documentary record scholars use to establish that a god was actually worshipped rather than invented later. Wikipedia describes epigraphy, the closely related discipline for inscriptions, as "the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing," the same source-by-source standard of evidence textual attestation relies on. Browsing this way lets a visitor see which text is the reason a deity is included in the atlas at all.
Facts
Attestation
Era of AttestationInherited devas appear in the earliest canonical strata; the celestial buddhas and bodhisattvas emerge with the Mahayana sutras around the turn of the era; the wrathful tantric deities from about the seventh century CE. All remain in worship. 2 Veneration TodayVenerated today across the Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions. 2 Overview
What Defines This GroupingCelestial and enlightened figures venerated across the Buddhist world: buddhas and bodhisattvas, tantric deities and protectors, and devas inherited from Indian and local pantheons. Buddhism posits no creator god and the historical Buddha is not one. The grouping is a convenience of this atlas rather than a category the tradition uses. 2 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryCalling buddhas, bodhisattvas and protectors deities imports a category Buddhist doctrine does not use. The tradition's own classes - buddha, bodhisattva, deva, dharmapala - do not map onto one another, and none of them maps onto the word god. 2 Learn More
The divine figures of Buddhism
This group gathers the celestial and enlightened figures venerated across the Buddhist world. Classical Buddhism does not posit a creator god, and the historical Buddha is remembered as an awakened teacher rather than a deity; yet the tradition developed a vast pantheon of buddhas, bodhisattvas, protectors and inherited gods, especially in its Mahayana and Vajrayana forms.
The browser will find cosmic buddhas such as Amitabha and Vairocana, the compassion-bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin, Chenrezig) and the wisdom-bodhisattva Manjushri, the future buddha Maitreya, wrathful protectors, and devas absorbed from Hindu and local traditions. Provenance and school (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana) shape which figures appear and how they are understood.
Attested In
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Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism
Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr., Princeton University Press, 2014s.v. deva; s.v. bodhisattvaView the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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