Origin 600 to 800 CE
A handbell held in the left hand throughout Vajrayana ritual, the vajra in the right. The bell is wisdom and emptiness, the vajra method and compassion, and holding both at once is a statement that the two are not separable. The handle of a ritual bell is itself a half-vajra, so the pair is one object divided.
In Hindu temple worship a bell is rung on entering and during arati, marking the passage into ritual attention and, in the usual explanation, keeping the mind from wandering during the offering. The bell is not sounded arbitrarily in either tradition; when it is rung, and by whom, is prescribed.
Facts
Use
Who May Handle ItHeld with the vajra in ritual performed by practitioners who have received the relevant empowerment ConsecrationConsecrated in a rite before use 1 Origins
Origin Period Material (class) Object category (class) Attributions
TraditionTibetan and Vajrayana Buddhism, Hinduism 1 Status
Status TodayIn active religious use 2 Learn More
The Bell That Is Half of a Pair
The ghanta is a handbell held in the left hand throughout Vajrayana ritual while the vajra is held in the right, and its meaning is inseparable from that pairing.
Wisdom and method together
In the pairing the bell is wisdom and emptiness and the vajra is method and compassion, and holding the two together throughout the rite states that these are inseparable, that the realisation the tradition seeks requires both, joined as the two hands are joined in the ritual gestures. The bell is rung at points in the liturgy, its sound understood as the sound of emptiness and as an offering, and its form is dense with meaning, the face of a deity on the bowl, a ring of syllables, and a handle topped by a half-vajra so that bell and sceptre together read as one divided object.
A statement made in metal
Because the handle of the bell is itself a half-vajra, the pair is in a sense a single implement parted into two, which makes the physical objects a compact expression of the doctrine that wisdom and method are ultimately one. The ghanta is thus never merely an instrument for marking the liturgy but a bearer of teaching held in the hand of the practitioner throughout, and the constant presence of the two together is a continual reminder of the union the practice aims at. The same bell appears in Hindu worship as the ghanta rung before the image, though the elaborate symbolism of the pair is particular to the Vajrayana.
Cast by the Same Hands as the Vajra It Accompanies
A ghanta is cast bronze or brass, produced in the same Newari and Tibetan metalworking workshops that cast the vajra it is always paired with, and its proportions, the shape of the handle, the profile of the bell, are specified in ritual texts rather than left to a founder's taste.
Construction detail
The handle is commonly cast as half a vajra or, in more elaborate examples, topped with the face of a specific deity such as Prajnaparamita, and the interior of the bell is sometimes engraved with mantra syllables not meant to be visible once the bell is in regular use. Because vajra and bell are cast to be used as a matched pair, a serious practitioner's set is typically acquired or commissioned together rather than assembled from mismatched pieces.
Use and repair
In ritual use the ghanta is held in the left hand while the vajra is held in the right, rung at specific points during a recitation rather than continuously, a division of the two hands that mirrors the same pairing of wisdom and method the implements are said to represent. A cracked or dulled bell is not simply thrown away, since bronze can be re-melted and recast respectfully into a new implement by the same workshops that made the original, treating the metal as reusable even when the specific bell is not repairable.
Connections
Belongs to Tradition
The ghanta is the left-hand half of the vajra and bell pair and stands for wisdom and emptiness.
Source Introduction to Tibetan BuddhismJohn Powers
Source The Princeton Dictionary of BuddhismRobert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr.
Element Of
Held with the sceptre in the ordinary paired gesture of the tradition.
Source Introduction to Tibetan BuddhismJohn Powers
The bell is rung in the Shingon rites in the same pairing with the sceptre that the Indian tradition established.
The bell held in the left hand stands for wisdom, and the two are held together to say that the pair cannot be separated.
Source Introduction to Tibetan BuddhismJohn Powers
The bell is paired with the sceptre, wisdom with method, and neither is used alone.
Source Introduction to Tibetan BuddhismJohn Powers
Related To
The ghanta is the Hindu and Vajrayana ritual bell, held in the left hand against the vajra in the right. The atlas holds it separately from the general form.
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Sources
1. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism
Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr., Princeton University Press, 2014on the ghanta and the vajraView the Source 2. Ghanta (Wikipedia)
- Wikipedia 'Ghanta': present-tense 'used in Hindu religious practices...devotees ring the bell while entering the temple'; checked 2026-09-27.
Lead section
Ghanta (Sanskrit: घण्टा, IAST: ghaṇṭā; Tibetan: drilbu) is the Sanskrit term for a ritual bell used in Hindu religious practices.
Lead sentence on materials
Hindu temples generally have one metal bell hanging at the entrance and devotees ring the bell while entering the temple which is an essential part in preparation of having a darshan.
Opening sentence
Ghanta (Sanskrit: घण्टा, IAST: ghaṇṭā; Tibetan: drilbu) is the Sanskrit term for a ritual bell used in Hindu religious practices.
View the SourceIntroduction to Tibetan Buddhism
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.