and distress. He saves too from moral evils, such as passion, hatred
and folly. He grants children to women who worship him. This power,
which is commonly exercised by female deities, is worth remarking as a
hint of his subsequent transformation into a goddess. For the better
achievement of his merciful deeds, he assumes all manner of forms, and
appears in the guise of a Buddha, a Bodhisattva, a Hindu deity, a
goblin, or a Brahman and in fact in any shape. This chapter was
translated into Chinese before 417 A.D. and therefore can hardly be
later than 350. He is also mentioned in the Sukhâvatî-vyûha. The
records of the Chinese pilgrims Fa-Hsien and Hsüan Chuang[23] indicate
that his worship prevailed in India from the fourth till the seventh
century and we are perhaps justified in dating its beginnings at least
two centuries earlier. But the absence of any mention of it in the
writings of Aśvaghosha is remarkable.[24]

Avalokita is connected with a mountain called Potala or Potalaka. The
name is borne by the palace of the Grand Lama at Lhassa and by another
Lamaistic establishment at Jehol in north China. It reappears in the
sacred island of P´u-t´o near Ningpo. In all these cases the name of
Avalokita's Indian residence has been transferred to foreign shrines.
In India there were at least two places called Potala or Potalaka--one
at the mouth of the Indus and one in the south. No certain connection
has been traced between the former and the Bodhisattva but in the
seventh century the latter was regarded as his abode. Our information
about it comes mainly from Hsüan Chuang[25] who describes it when
speaking of the Malakuta country and as near the Mo-lo-ya (Malaya)
mountain. But apparently he did not visit it and this makes it
probable that it was not a religious centre but a mountain in the
south of which Buddhists in the north wrote with little precision.[26]
There is no evidence that Avalokita was first worshipped on this