Studies in Indian Art c13.s2.28

c13.s2.28

*Fig. 138* represents a Pramatha or one of Śiva's *gaṇas*. Śiva is the lord of cosmic energy; as Fiery Rudra he is the supreme director and controller of all that lives and moves. He personifies the collective principle, the cosmic form which is one indivisible whole as the supreme divinity. But He manifests himself in creation as so many *gaṇas*. The One becomes the many, and this is creation. Each *gaṇa* symbolises the principle of individualisation and Śiva is the lord of all the *gaṇas*. A *gaṇa* is aptly designated as a Pramatha, a turbulent unit of energy, challenging and aggressive, possessing a destructive tendency, unless controlled by the master and in tune with his cosmic dance. The *gaṇas* are represented in the pose of frolicking young boys. They are the wonderful Boy Heroes submitting to the power of the Eternal Yogi or sage that is Śiva. In Śaiva temples a number of them were depicted in an endless variety of postures, as shown on pl. X of the Bhumara Memoir by R. D. Banerji. The playful *gaṇas* became a favourite motif of Gupta architecture, to which reference is made in the *Vāsavadattā* of Subandhu as *māṇavaka krīḍita* (Jivanand's ed., p. 53), as *bāla-krīḍā* in the *Kādambarī* (Vaidya ed., p. 52), as *dharma-bālāpatya* in the *Avantisundarī* (p. 5), and as *śiśu* in the *Nalachampū*. In an age surcharged with the ideal of Kumāra, the depiction of those playful boys received added significance as a decorative motif in residential buildings and shrines. The present one is a fine vigorous example of this motif duly adorned with fluttering ringlets, writslets, armlets, a tiger's claw-pendant (*vyāghra-nakha*) and a waistband.