Prajñāpāramitā Devī
Buddhist goddess that symbolizes and embodies Prajñāpāramitā, the perfection of transcendent wisdom
Prajñāpāramitā Devī (Sanskrit: प्रज्ञापारमिता देवी, lit. 'Perfection of Wisdom Goddess'; Tibetan: ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་མ, abbr. ཤེར་ཕྱིན་མ, Wylie: shes rab kyi pa rol tu chin ma abbr. sher chin ma) is a female Buddha that symbolizes and embodies Prajñāpāramitā, the perfection of transcendent wisdom. This is the highest kind of wisdom in Mahayana and Vajrayana, which leads to Buddhahood and is the spontaneous source of Buddhahood. This is the essence of the Prajñāpāramitā sutras of which there are thousands. As such, Prajñāpāramitā Devī is a samboghakaya Buddha, and is known as "Mother of Buddhas" (Sanskrit: बुद्धमातृ, romanized: Buddhamātṛ) or "The Great Mother" (Tibetan: ཡུམ་ཆེན་མོ, Wylie: Yum chen mo).
She is a central figure in Vajrayana and appears in various sutra and tantra Buddhist sources, like the Heart Sutra, Sādhanamāla, Niṣpannayogāvali, the Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa tantra, Dhāranisamuccaya, Mañjusrimūlakalpa, and the Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra.
Prajñāpāramitā Devī was widely depicted in Indian Buddhist art from around the 9th to 12th centuries, particularly in the art of the Pala Empire. She is also widely found in the Buddhist art of other regions like Java, Cambodia, Tibet and in the Himalayas. Himalayan and Tibetan art may depict her as either a bodhisattva or as a Buddha.
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