Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s7.39

c13.s7.39

¹ The Bhāgavatas adopted this significant epithet 'Vishnu' as the name of the creator (veveshṭi vyāpnoti iti Vishṇuḥ, Vishnu is that who is all pervasive). This definition of divinity was at once sanctifying a metaphysical truth and at the same time marked by unique clarity which could be understood by the most ordinary persons. Throughout the Bhāgavata-literature the name Vishnu becomes supreme, the acceptance of this name also had a practical consequence. It helped to achieve the synthesis of the diverse deities into one central divinity. The Bhāgavatas emphasised the fact that Vishnu was the divine creator, preserver and destroyer of the cosmos, i. e. the supreme symbol of the triple manifestation (Traiguṇya) and that again it was Vishnu who was the transcendent of the absolute Brahman beyond all manifestations (Nirguṇa). The synthesis of the numerous tutelary divinities with the god Vishnu as the centre of the things became an easy and convenient process of things. The Śeshaśāyī Vishnu image may be considered as a triumph of symbolic representation in which the infinite absolute and the relative aspects of Brahman (Nirguṇa and Saguṇa Brahman) have been cast into an inalienable alliance and this image rightly became the object of enthusiasm for the Bhāgavata worshippers.