Ruthless Compassion

Despite an impressive body of distinguished scholarship on the history of esoteric Buddhism in India, it is only sketchily understood. The author assembles hundreds of works of art, analyzing them formally and stylistically, to determine the chronology of their iconographic themes. This group of art objects is comprised mainly of sculpture surviving from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries at widely scattered sites throughout eastern India, Europe and America. Collectively, the group provides a continuous historical record of the evolution of esoteric Buddhist belief and practice - a record that supplements and often challenges the conclusions of exclusively textual histories.

Robert N. Linrothe is Assistant Professor of Art History at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York.