Avalokitesvara is unknown to the Pali Canon and the Milinda Panha.  So far as I can discover he is not mentioned in the Divyavadana, Jatakamala or any work attributed to Asvaghosha.  His name does not occur in the Lalita-vistara but a list of Bodhisattvas in its introductory chapter includes Mahakarunacandin, suggesting Mahakaruna, the Great Compassionate, which is one of his epithets.  In the Lotus[22] he is placed second in the introductory list of Bodhisattvas after Manjusri.  But Chapter XXIV, which is probably a later addition, is dedicated to his praises as Samantamukha, he who looks every way or the omnipresent.  In this section his character as the all-merciful saviour is fully developed.  He saves those who call on him from shipwreck, and execution, from robbers and all violence and distress.  He saves too from moral evils, such as passion, hatred and folly.  He grants children to women who worship him.  This power, which is commonly exercised by female deities, is worth remarking as a hint of his subsequent transformation into a goddess.  For the better achievement of his merciful deeds, he assumes all manner of forms, and appears in the guise of a Buddha, a Bodhisattva, a Hindu deity, a goblin, or a Brahman and in fact in any shape.  This chapter was translated into Chinese before 417 A.D. and therefore can hardly be later than 350.  He is also mentioned in the Sukhavati-vyuha.  The records of the Chinese pilgrims Fa-Hsien and Hsuean Chuang[23] indicate that his worship prevailed in India from the fourth till the seventh century and we are perhaps justified in dating its beginnings at least two centuries earlier.  But the absence of any mention of it in the writings of Asvaghosha is remarkable.[24]

Avalokita is connected with a mountain called Potala or Potalaka.  The name is borne by the palace of the Grand Lama at Lhassa and by another Lamaistic establishment at Jehol in north China.  It reappears in the sacred island of P’u-t’o near Ningpo.  In all these cases the name of Avalokita’s Indian residence has been transferred to foreign shrines.  In India there were at least two places called Potala or Potalaka—­one at the mouth of the Indus and one in the south.  No certain connection has been traced between the former and the Bodhisattva but in the seventh century the latter was regarded as his abode.  Our information about it comes mainly from Hsuean Chuang[25] who describes it when speaking of the Malakuta country and as near the Mo-lo-ya (Malaya) mountain.  But apparently he did not visit it and this makes it probable that it was not a religious centre but a mountain in the south of which Buddhists in the north wrote with little precision.[26] There is no evidence that Avalokita was first worshipped on this Potalaka, though he is often associated with mountains such as Kapota in Magadha and Valavati in Kataha.[27] In fact the connection of Potala with Avalokita remains a mystery.