the Lord who is looked at. Kern[18] thinks it may mean the Lord who is
everywhere visible as a very present help in trouble, or else the Lord
of View, like the epithet Dṛishtiguru applied to Śiva. Another form
of the name is Lokeśvara or Lord of the world and this suggests that
_avalokita_ may be a synonym of _loka_, meaning the visible universe.
It has also been suggested that the name may refer to the small image
of Amitâbha which is set in his diadem and thus looks down on him. But
such small images set in the head of a larger figure are not
distinctive of Avalokita: they are found in other Buddhist statues and
paintings and also outside India, for instance at Palmyra. The Tibetan
translation of the name[19] means he who sees with bright eyes. Hsüan
Chuang's rendering Kwan-tzǔ-tsai[20] expresses the same idea, but the
more usual Chinese translation Kuan-yin or Kuan-shih-yin, the deity
who looks upon voices or the region of voices, seems to imply a verbal
misunderstanding. For the use of Yin or voice makes us suspect that
the translator identified the last part of _Avalokiteśvara_ not with
_Îśvara_ lord but with _svara_ sound.[21]

Avalokiteśvara is unknown to the Pali Canon and the Milinda Pañha. So
far as I can discover he is not mentioned in the Divyâvadâna,
Jâtakamâlâ or any work attributed to Aśvaghosha. His name does not
occur in the Lalita-vistara but a list of Bodhisattvas in its
introductory chapter includes Mahâkaruṇâcandin, suggesting
Mahâkaruna, the Great Compassionate, which is one of his epithets. In
the Lotus[22] he is placed second in the introductory list of
Bodhisattvas after Mañjuśrî. But Chapter XXIV, which is probably a
later addition, is dedicated to his praises as Samantamukha, he who
looks every way or the omnipresent. In this section his character as
the all-merciful saviour is fully developed. He saves those who call
on him from shipwreck, and execution, from robbers and all violence