This brass image represents one of the early forms of Manjushri, the Buddhist god who stands for wisdom and knowledge, more particularly the knowledge of linguistics and grammar. The image of the deity, with its two arms and the book Prajnaparmita, carried over a lotus, pursues the initial idiom of Manjushri imagery. One of the would-be Buddhas, Manjushri also symbolised, like other Boddhisattvas Avalokiteshvara, Metreya, Padmapani, etceteras, different stages of the soul's attainment of Buddhattva. In early innovations, Manjushri images had normal two arms, and only rarely four, carrying in one of them a 'khadaga', sword, and in the other the book Prajnaparamita.