Mahāmāyūrī

Mahāmāyūrī is attested in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna textual and visual corpora, most centrally in the Mahāmāyūrī Vidyārājñī Sūtra (Chinese title 孔雀王咒經, Peacock King Mantra Sutra), where she is the focus of a protective scripture. Over time she is cataloged among protective Wisdom figures (described in modern summaries as a Wisdom Queen or female Wisdom King) and listed in some sources as one of a group of protective goddesses; her cult appears across Indian, Chinese, and Japanese ritual and artistic contexts.

Sources link Mahāmāyūrī iconographically to peacock imagery (her name literally glossed as “great female peacock”) and to standard bodhisattva/Vajrayāna presentation: richly ornamented, often depicted standing or seated on a lotus pedestal and wearing precious accessories in East Asian paintings and banners. Museum and Dunhuang banner descriptions record painted depictions (e.g., Japanese Meiji-period painting labeled Kujaku Myōō; a Dunhuang banner showing a richly decorated bodhisattva on a lotus) that align her with lush ornamentation and peacock-associated symbolism.

Documentary sources present Mahāmāyūrī primarily as a protective and wisdom-associated figure: the Mahāmāyūrī Vidyārājñī Sūtra and associated mantras (including a named heart-mantra in recorded liturgical collections) are used to protect practitioners and to avert or heal afflictions. Her peacock association figures in symbolic claims about resistance to poison/danger in Buddhist iconography; beyond protection and wisdom-function, the provided sources do not catalog additional supernatural capabilities.