604 henrik h. sørensen
which probably came into being during the Silla kingdom, became
very important during the Koryŏ dynasty. In Korean Buddhist iconog-
raphy, Indra, as the leader of the gods, is placed at the head of a divine
army of spirit generals that protects Buddhism. Rituals dedicated to
the worship of Indra were performed frequently within the grounds
of the royal palace where a special Indra shrine was erected. The KS
informs us that rituals were performed there or sometimes in the open
space outside this building (see KS I, ch. 9, 184a). It is clear from the
KS that Indra rituals, or the worship of Indra as such, were carried out
in conjunction with other Esoteric Buddhist rites, including the ritual
for the removal of calamities (i.e., seeking protection from heavenly
transformations). Hence it formed part of the worship of the divinities
of the asterisms and constellations, as well as rites for the prevention
of natural disasters such as drought and flooding. In his function as
heavenly sovereign, Indra was believed to be in control of dragons and
other elemental beings, and was often invoked in connection with nat-
ural disasters relating to the water element.^23 The sources also mention
that in order to attain longevity King Uijong (r. 1146–1170) was
encouraged by the palace official Yŏng Yi (?–1170; HITS 469b)
to have numerous images of Indra and the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara
painted and distributed to the various temples near Kaesŏng, includ-
ing the important Anhwa Temple.^24 In this manner we see
how Indra, who was in charge of the heavenly bureaucracy, was much
like the Jade Emperor (Yu Di ) in Chinese Daoism.
It is interesting to note that the Indra cult enjoyed a special popu-
larity under the Koryŏ, a popularity that was not matched by contem-
porary Chinese and Japanese Buddhism. The reason for this is not
immediately known, but it is not unlikely that this may have rested on
an imagined connection between Indra as the sovereign of the gods in
heaven and the Koryŏ kings as sovereigns of the Korean people, that
is, the rulers on earth. Undoubtedly due to the fact that Indra was
considered the king of the gods, we sometimes find the heavenly lumi-
naries and the other constellations worshipped in conjunction with
the Indra rituals.
(^23) Sŏ Yun’gil has identified the Mahāmegha sūtra (T. 989), an important Esoteric
Buddhist scripture, as one of the primary sources for Indra worship. See Sŏ 1993,
89–90.
(^24) KS III, ch. 123, 671b–672a (biographies, ch. 36).