Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Studies in Indian Art c7.s3: 3. Viśvakarmā

Studies in Indian Art c7.s3

Language
English

3. Viśvakarmā

c7.s3.1

'Mighty in mind and power is Viśvakarmā, Maker, Disposer and most lofty Presence', Viśvakarmā represents the highest image (*paramāsamdṛik*). According to Meister Eckhart, "Any thing known or born is an image". Thus the world of Name and Form is the image of Viśvakarmā. It is his lofty Presence, his apparition, that was once concealed in the highest heaven and has now become manifest as the immanent world of names and forms. The visible objects which Viśvakarmā is creating constitute This All (*idam sarvam*), i.e., the totality of all images which we grasp through the mind and senses. Viśvakarmā in his undifferentiated form, i.e., in principium (*agre*) contains within Him all that has become known or born later on. Each image or icon is a symbol of the divine supreme reality, and is the manifest form of that which existed in the mind of the creator. There is an Original Model (*pratirūpa*) which unfolds itself in diverse forms (*rūpam rūpam pratirūpo babhūva*, *Ṛigveda* VI. 47. 18). What the original model (*pratirūpa*) is we do not know; or else we know it through the forms in which it is imaged. To see Him, which is the same as to understand Him, we must find Him out in every figure of which He was the original. The model is archetypal for all casts, figures and images. Viśvakarmā is that Archetype (*prathamachchhada*).

c7.s3.2

To know the model one should know the figure. The figures are within our purview. They alone can be seen in concrete form. The great law by which Viśvakarmā creates is the equation: *yathā=tathā*. The visible world is *yathā* of which the variety and diversity are infinite, beyond the power of words and thought to comprehend in fullness. *Yathā* is equal to This, and *tathā* is equal to That. The source of *yathā* is *tathā*. This is rooted in That. The latter is beyond name and form. It is the supreme reality, the lofty presence in the highest heaven (*parama vyoman*).

c7.s3.3

In later imagery Viṣṇu is called Viśvakarmā (in the *Viṣṇusahasranāma*). He is two-fold, viz. *parama rūpa*, same as the *paramā samdṛik* of the *Ṛigveda*. That which is *parama rūpa* is *arūpa*; the Highest Form is identical with the Formless, so says the *Viṣṇu Purāṇa* (VI. 7. 54):

c7.s3.4

*Tachcha Viṣṇoḥ paramarūpam arūpākhyamanuttamam*
*Viśva-svarūpa-vairupya-lakṣaṇam paramātmanaḥ*.

c7.s3.5

The cosmic forms constitute the *vairūpya*, the manifold appearance of the deity. Each of them in its strict definition is an apparition, a *yakṣa*, merely name and form without real substance. The *yogin* alone can comprehend the higher form (*pararūpa*); others can think only of the material forms of images. Meditation of images is essential, the normal way for the functioning of the mind.

c7.s3.6

This material world of images is the endless world of art. It is the mind (chitta) that depicts the images (chitra-karma). A mental concept is raised in the mind of the sculptor or the painter, and the same is then projected as sculpture, painting, etc. The world of forms is called Prajāpati, i.e. the creator in his cosmic aspect. It is also Hiranyagarbha, the potentiality of all manifest forms. In short, whatever is here is the material manifest form of Vishnu (mūrtam etad hareh rūpam). The sun and moon, stars and planets, men and animals, mountains, oceans and rivers, plants and roots, the animate and inanimate—all that which is the realm of art or images is to be realised through meditation. The visual aspect of an image is a very fractional aspect, limited in time and space, almost a lifeless concept, but each image has to be meditated upon as a symbol of an act of Viśvakarmā.

c7.s3.7

The operation of the mind brings into being all the various kinds of human art. The deva-śilpa is the work of the Creator's mind, the mānusha-śilpa that of the human mind. The mind is the storehouse of all the various pictorial forms form the beginning to the end. Indeed it has been said that the mind (chitta) is even more various-and-pictorial (chittatara) than painting (chitta in Pāli), because in the latter the conception is not perfectly realised while the pictures made by the mind are faultless. (Coomaraswamy, "An Early Passage on Indian Painting"; Atthasālini, PTS ed. pp. 64).

c7.s3.8

Indian art primarily emphasises and insists on the intellectual act. Higher art is a sublime way of the mind. What is now taken to be the sensible aspect, i.e. 'grasped by the senses', is the aesthetic form with all its inherent principles of beauty. It is only a limited portion of that infinite world which appertains to the realm of mind of a creative artist. He is to be compared with Viśvakarmā on the human level of reference. The concrete is the lower form (avara rūpa) and the mental the higher (para rūpa). The wise man is he who discriminates the higher form; the lower or material image gives him no real pleasure (rūpa na ramate).

c7.s3.9

Viśvakarmā is spoken of as lofty in mind (vimanā). He is the Father of the Eye (chakshushah pitā). This Eye is the same as mind or spirit, the wisdom of the Creator. It is this Eye which is sometimes identified with the Sun, because the latter is Viśvarūpa, the maker of all forms or lightimages. In the primeval eye of Viśvakarmā there was a reflection on 'the first day of creation' (agre) of the world image. It was that reflection (ābhāsa) which has become mirrored in the shining stuff of this world. The world subsists in its formless simplicity in the Creator. It is undifferentiated in the beginning; subsequently Indra (mind) creates different light-images (rūpam rūpam maghavā bo-bhavīti).

c7.s3.10

The worship of an image is itself an art, a 'technique', as clearly stated in the Vishnu Purāna. "First the worshipper should mediate on the differentiated form (mūrta rūpa) of Vishnu. He should make his mind strong, i.e., intent on concentration when looking at the image". This corresponds to the stage of dhāraṇā in Yoga. He should understand the form and meaning of each limb of which the image is a complete expression. The decorative ornaments and the various poses of the hands like *varada* and *abhaya*, should also interest him.

c7.s3.11

Next he should turn his attention to the higher stages, i.e., lead his mind on from the concrete aspect to the intellectual concept. For this he should think of Viṣṇu as free from his attributes, like the conch, wheel, bow and club, and only meditate on his tranquil form (*praśānta rūpa*). Only the beaded rosary is to be imagined in this form. Then he should meditate on the form in which all ornaments and decorations have been eliminated and the *deva* appears as a unitary person (*ekāvayava*). The next stage is that in which only the divine feeling inspires the mind of the devotee. This is *dhyāna*. Ultimately the worshipper attains to the highest condition of the *yogī* when his mind becomes one with the divine being and loses all distinctions of meditation (*dhyāna*), one who meditates (*dhyātā*) and on whom one meditates (*dhyeya*; Viṣṇu Purāṇa, VI. 7. 86-91). This is virtually the same as a vision of the *parama rūpa*, or Viśvakarmā’s loftiest presence of the *Ṛigveda*. The worshipper is now transformed into a seer or *yogī*.

c7.s3.12

Indian art theory does not belittle the visual symbolism of art. It links it in the first instance to the verbal symbolism which is scripture. The two are co-related and essential to each other. But ultimately both have to yield place to that which transcends all symbolism, which is an ideal *tathā* or Suchness. The verbal symbolism plays an important part in Indian aesthetic tradition. The scripture is the Veda, the source of all *nāma-rūpa*, viz., the visual symbolism of art. The Veda is absolutely essential for art comprehension. It explains that which is known intuitively (*manasā niśchita*), or what has been visualised (*taddhyātam*). The *rishis* saw with an eye which is gifted with the ‘seeing of ideas’ (*mantra-draṣṭāraḥ*). It is an ever-happening process. Any one who creates a thought-form (*mānasa sṛiṣṭi*) is a *rishi* to the extent of that intellectual operation. Having produced in the mind, the artist proceeds to the production of the concrete or visual symbolism as the various forms of art.

c7.s3.13

The gods—all the gods and goddesses in the various cults of the past and future—were gathered together in the primeval germ of Viśvakarmā. Whatever man’s fancy has created in the religious disciplines of the past or whatever it will create in future, is an intellectual emanation from Viśvakarmā who is one and only one name-giver to many gods (*yo devānāṁ namadhā eka eva, Ṛig., X. 82.3*).

c7.s3.14

Viśvakarmā is *sādhu-karmā*, one whose works are perfect specimens (*Ṛig., X. 81.6*). His creation is an ever expanding process in time and space (*havishā vāvṛidhānā, Ṛig., X. 81.6*). His highest and lowest natures (*parama, avama dhāma*) exist side by side with a connecting intermediate link (*madhyama dhāma*). These three correspond to the triple forms of art referred to above. The visual symbolism is the lowermost nature (*avama, kshara, mūrta*). The mental or the verbal symbol of scripture is the mid-most form, a station on the way to the highest reality. It is the light-image (*bhā-rūpa*) or reflection (*ābhāsa*), an intellectual act which is the ‘art in the artist’, as Coomarswamy has put it. The highest form (*parama dhāma*) of Viśvakarmā is that which is formless (*arūpa*), i.e., in which only the highest Unitary Principle (*tattva*) transcends all particulars (*viśeṣa*) and definitions and in which all forms are to be seen in identity with every other. In a true realisation of art these three distinctive natures, which are at the same time linked by a unifying thread, should be borne in mind.

c7.s3.15

What a rich and liberal patron is Viśvakarmā under whose effulgent patronage such magnificent art forms (*deva-śilpa*) are being produced? The common or average man remains ignorant of the mystery and grandeur of this art. The liberal patron, however, is continually producing. His imagination is limitless and his capacity to produce forms is boundless. There is a purpose in His creative work, viz., to aid in the great continual process of life as expressed both in nature and man. The archetypal parents (*Dyāvā-Pṛthivī*) when they create are soaked with the life-sap and their cosmic thread is far extended and firmly fastened to the centre (*nābhi*, ‘navel’) of the Creator.

Linked texts (3)