oa Scent of the Blue Nun. Utpalavarṇā in Medieval Indian Palm-Leaf Manuscripts

The blue skin of the prominent Buddhist nun Utpalavarņā in paintings from medieval India references more than a simple translation of her name, “She Who is the Color (vara) of the Blue Lotus (utpala).” Sanskrit sources explain that her name refers to the color of the golden pollen-bearing anther, not the utpala’s blue petals, and that her skin miraculously exuded the fl ower’s fragrance. The blue of her skin in images, therefore, may have served as a visual suggestion of her fragrance rather than her skin color. The depictions, however, also project a pejorative interpretation of her character. Her blue body is the focus of one of the eight great events in the life of the Buddha, in which he rebuked her for using magic so that she could be the fi rst to greet him upon his descent from heaven. Visually arresting, images of the blue nun convey warnings about the seduction of fragrance, magic, and insubordinate nuns who must be tamed and controlled. Keywords / Buddhist art, Buddhist monasticism, Buddhist narrative, Buddhist nuns, medieval India, Nālandā, palm-leaf manuscript, Pāla manuscripts, Prajñāpāramitā, Utpalavarṇā.