The Buddhist image of goddess Lakṣmī might have first appeared in the Sanchi Stūpa, for so far she is not seen in any of the earlier Buddhist sites in Asia. She is often regarded as the goddess of wealth or fertility because she is thus depicted in the early Buddhist texts. But we notice that she was also regarded as the protector of Dalai Lamas in the Tibetan tradition, the kings of ancient Khotan, and King Indravarman II of the Champa kingdom established in the late 9th century in ancient Vietnam. This paper investigates of the Sanchi Stūpa. By mainly investigating the belief of the goddess which was promoted by Indravarman II in Champa kingdom, we find that the goddess was taken as a protector of the cakravartin, or the builder of the Sanchi Stūpa .
