Biography
Diptangshu Dutta Gupta is a postgraduate student from the Department of History at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He completed his Masters degree in 2024, specializing in Early and Early Medieval South Asian History with a focus on Buddhist religious studies, as well as Military History. Currently, he is pursuing specialized certificate courses on Applied Buddhist Philosophy and Iconography at the School of Buddhist Studies, Philosophy, and Comparative Religion at Nalanda University, Rajgir. His research interests include South Asian Religions, Military History, Gender Studies, and Iconographic Studies.
Paper Abstract
This paper reinterprets the wrathful Buddhist deities Vajrapāṇi and Yamāntaka as embodiments of ecological and social guardianship, arguing that their iconography offers a rooted Buddhist response to today’s intertwined environmental and societal crises. Traditionally misread as violent figures, these deities represent benevolent anger—a compassionate force that confronts harmful actions, restores balance, and protects vulnerable worlds. Drawing on Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist Sources, the paper demonstrates how wrathful forms operate as ancient technologies of moral ecology, designed to subdue forces—inner defilements and outer threats—that destabilize both human and natural systems.
By revisiting the philosophical roots of these images, particularly their emphasis on subduing kleśas, ignorance, and destructive tendencies, I argue that Vajrapāṇi and Yamāntaka model a form of ethical ferocity necessary for confronting contemporary challenges such as ecological degradation, climatic anxieties, sectarian violence, and social fragmentation. Their compassionate wrath becomes a symbolic method for resisting apathy and harmful institutions, encouraging communities to act decisively yet ethically in defence of the more-than-human world. This study suggests that Buddhist wrathful iconography offers a philosophical toolkit for navigating crisis: grounding action in wisdom, compassion, and power. Rather than valorising aggression, these deities teach that fierce compassion can be mobilised to restore ecological balance, protect communal well-being, and cultivate resilience in the face of moral and environmental collapse. Their imagery invites renewed engagement with ancestral Buddhist insights as resources for reimagining sustainable, just, and spiritually grounded futures.