In Buddhist legends, Vájrapāṇi is a minor boddhisattva who accompanied Gautama Buddha during his career as a wandering mendicant. He is also
believed to be the spirit of rain and thunder hence he is often invoked during times of Drought.
In some texts he is said to be a manifestation of Śakra, king of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven of Buddhist and Hindu cosmology and god of rain as depicted in the idols of the Gandharva. As Śakra, it is said that he was present during the birth of Tathagata. As Vajrapāni he was the god who helped Gautama escape from the palace at the time of his renunciation. When Sakyamuni returned from Kapilavastu he is stated to have assumed eight forms of devas who escorted him.
According to Xuanzang, the Chinese monk and traveler, Vajrapāni vanquished a large serpent at Udyana. In another version it is stated that while the Nāgas came to worship the Buddha and hear his sermons, Vajrapāni assumed the form of a bird to deceive them so that they were not attacked by their deadly enemies, the Garudas.
At the deathbed of the Buddha, Vajrapāni dropped his vajra in despair and rolled himself in the dust. He is also a very important deity within the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon, as the god of rain.
Indo-Greek mythology[]
As Buddhism expanded in Central Asia and fused with Hellenistic influences into Greco-Buddhism, the Greek hero Heracles was adopted to represent Vajrapāni. In that era, he was typically depicted as a hairy, muscular athlete, wielding a short "diamond" club. Buddhaghosa associated Vajrapāni with the deva king Indra. Some authors believe that the deity depicted is actually Zeus, whose Classical attribute is the thunderbolt. The image of Vajrapani as a wrestler-like figure would eventually influence the statues of guardian deities in East Asia.
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