mythology is the name given to the mother of Buddha, the planet
Mercury. Whether the name was first used by Buddhists or Brahmans is
unknown, but after the seventh century there was a decided tendency to
give Târâ the epithets bestowed on the Śaktis of Śiva and assimilate
her to those goddesses. Thus in the list of her 108 names[39] she is
described among other more amiable attributes as terrible, furious,
the slayer of evil beings, the destroyer, and Kâlî: also as carrying
skulls and being the mother of the Vedas. Here we have if not the
borrowing by Buddhists of a Śaiva deity, at least the grafting of
Śaiva conceptions on a Bodhisattva.

The second great Bodhisattva Mañjuśrî[40] has other similar names,
such as Mañjunâtha and Mañjughosha, the word Mañju meaning sweet or
pleasant. He is also Vagîśvara, the Lord of Speech, and Kumârabhûta,
the Prince, which possibly implies that he is the Buddha's eldest son,
charged with the government under his direction. He has much the same
literary history as Avalokita, not being mentioned in the Pali Canon
nor in the earlier Sanskrit works such as the Lalita-vistara and
Divyâvadâna. But his name occurs in the Sukhâvatî-vyûha: he is the
principal interlocutor in the Lankâvatâra sûtra and is extolled in the
Ratna-karaṇḍaka-vyûha-sûtra.[41] In the greater part of the Lotus he
is the principal Bodhisattva and instructs Maitreya, because, though
his youth is eternal, he has known many Buddhas through innumerable
ages. The Lotus[42] also recounts how he visited the depths of the sea
and converted the inhabitants thereof and how the Lord taught him what
are the duties of a Bodhisattva after the Buddha has entered finally
into Nirvana. As a rule he has no consort and appears as a male
Athene, all intellect and chastity, but sometimes Lakshmî or Sarasvatî
or both are described as his consorts.[43]