Rāgarāja

Ragaraja
200px Ragaraja at Tokyo National Museum, Japan
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	愛染明王
Simplified Chinese	爱染明王
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Àirǎn Míngwáng Wade–Giles Ai4-jan3 Ming2-wang2 IPA [âi̯ɻàn mǐŋu̯ǎŋ]
Japanese name
Kanji	愛染明王
Transcriptions Romanization Aizen Myō'ō
Sanskrit name
Sanskrit	Rāgarāja

Rāgarāja (Sanskrit: रागाराजा; simplified Chinese: 爱染明王; traditional Chinese: 愛染明王; pinyin: Àirǎn Míngwáng, Japanese Aizen Myō'ō) is a dharmapala deity from the Esoteric and Vajrayana Buddhism. He is especially venerated in the Tangmi schools and its descendants, particularly Shingon Buddhism and Tendai in Japan.

Nomenclature

Rāgarāja is known to transform worldly lust into spiritual awakening. Originally a Hindu deity, he was adapted as a dharmapala and Wisdom King. When scriptures related to him reached China during the Tang dynasty, his Sanskrit name was translated as Àirǎn Míngwáng "Lustful-Tinted Wisdom King". In Japanese, it is written the same way in Kanji but pronounced as Aizen Myō'ō.

Depiction

Rāgarāja is a Wisdom King like Acala and is one of the "Eight Wisdom Kings". There are four different mandalas associated with Rāgarāja. The first posits him with thirty-seven assistant devas, the second with seventeen. The other two are special arrangements, one made by Enchin, fourth Tendai patriarch, the other a Shiki mandala which represents deities using their mantra seed syllables drawn in bonji.

He is portrayed as a red-skinned man with a fearsome appearance and flaming wild hair that represents suppressed lust and passion. There is usually a lion's head on top of his head in his hair. There are two, four or six armed incarnations of him but the six-armed one is the most common. Those six arms bear a bell, a vajra, an unopened lotus flower, a bow, arrows, and one holding something that we cannot see (only advanced esoteric practitioners know what that thing is.)

According to the "Pavilion of Vajra Peak and all its Yogas and Yogins Sutra" with the abbreviated name of the "Yogins Sutra", possibly an apocryphal work attributed to the great Buddhist patriarch Vajrabodhi, Rāgarāja represents the state at which sexual excitement or agitation can be channeled towards enlightenment and passionate love can become compassion for all living things.

Rāgarāja is similar to the red form of Tara, called Kurukulla, in Tibetan Buddhism.