Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

16 AmmAmitabha is also taken as a tutelary god inLamaism [Tibet] in which case his attributesinclude bell, jewel and three monkish robes. Emanationsinclude PADMAPANI, MANJUSRI and manyother minor names.See also AKSOBHYA, AMOGHASIDDHI, RAT-NASAMBHAVA and VAIROCANA.AmmMoon god. Pre-Islamic southern Arabian. Thetutelary deity of the Qataban tribe. Also revered asa weather god. Attributes include lightning bolts.Amma (1)Local tutelary god. Dravidian (Tamil). Knownfrom southern India.Ammut (devouress of the dead)Chthonic underworld goddess. Egyptian. A significantdeity who allegedly consumes the dead iftheir hearts are found weighed down with guilt inthe Judgment Hall of the Two Truths during theWeighing of the Heart ceremony. Ammut has afearsome aspect and sits alongside forty-two jurorgods named in the Book of the Dead. Depicted withthe head of a crocodile, the trunk and fore-limbsof a lion and the hind part of a hippopotamus.See also THOTH and MAAT.AmoghapasaGod. Buddhist. A variety of AVALOKITESVARA,depicted with one head and six, eight or twentyhands. Attributes: arrow, bell, lotus, noose, prayerwheel, rosary, staff and tiger skin.Amma (2)Creator god. Dogon [Mali, West Africa]. Hefirst created the sun by baking a clay pot until itwas white hot and coiling a band of copperaround it eight times. He created the moon insimilar fashion but used brass. Black peoplewere created from sunlight and white frommoonlight. Later, having circumcised theearth goddess, whose clitoris was an anthill, heimpregnated her and produced the first creature,a jackal. Next he fertilized her with rain toengender plant life and finally became the fatherof mankind.AmmavaruPrimordial mother goddess. Hindu-Dravidian.Known locally from east central India and worshipedby the Dravidian tribe of Telugu. She issaid to have generated the cosmic egg in the seaof milk from which the major gods BRAHMA,VIŠNU and ŠIVA were born.AMOGHASIDDHI (unfailing power)ORIGIN Buddhist [India]. The fifth dhyanibuddhaor meditation buddha.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 500 BC topresent.SYNONYMS Kharmaheruka.CENTER(S) OF CULT pan-Asiatic.ART REFERENCESpaintings.LITERARY SOURCESritual texts.metal and stone sculptures,Sadhanamala and TantricOne of five mystic spiritual counterparts of ahuman buddha in Vajrayana Buddhism. A productof the ADIBUDDHA who represents the branch ofthe cosmos concerned with consciousness. Heoriginates from the green mantra HUM and livesin the northern paradise. His SAKTI is ARYA-TARAand he is normally accompanied by two GARUDASor dwarfs. Color: green. Attributes: staff andsometimes seven-headed snake. Amoghasiddhi isalso taken as a tutelary deity in Lamaism [Tibet]