Originally portrayed as a servant or acolyte of the buddha Amitābha in some of the texts which mention him, Avalokiteśvara - originally 'Avalokita(svara)' - also later came to be depicted as one who brought popular deities into Buddhism by pronouncing their hymns, thereby according them a place in Buddhist scriptures and ritual. Eventually, however, these deities came to be identified as different forms or manifestations of the bodhisattva himself. Thus Avalokiteśvara gradually took on forms, attributes and titles originally ascribed to Shiva and/or to Vishnu such as sahasra-bhuja, sahasra-netra ('thousand-eyed'), Īśvara, Maheśvara, Hari, or Nīlakaṇṭha.