Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c17.2

c17.2

The auspicious symbols as part of religious thought and ritualistic signs penetrated all walks of society, and took such deep roots as to have survived through the ages up to our own times. They were accepted amongst all denominations, viz. Buddhist, Jaina and Brāhmaṇas. In fact, no religious ownership should be claimed for them but a universal cult was taken for granted as their basis. They were freely admitted in the decoration of the Stūpa as *Pūrṇaghaṭapaṅkti*, *Chakrapaṅkti*, Lotus-garland, etc. (see pp. 125-6); in civic architecture, e.g. five defencive circles (*pañcharakshā*) round a city, viz. Nāga kings half-emerging from ponds (*udakaniśrita nāga*), cup-bearing deities (*karoṭapāṇi deva*), garland-bearing gods (*mālādhara deva*), merry-making godlings (*sadāmattaka deva*) and four lokapāla guardian kings (*chatvāraḥ mahārājānaḥ*) (Divyā- vadāna, p. 218); and in domestic architecture as conch, lotus, full-vase, etc. An unlimited and manisided elaboration of the earliest symbols took place in course of time as we see a full stock of over five hundred symbols on punchmarked coins (c. 700 B. C.-100 B.C.). The tradition was still further developed on tribal coins (c. 200 B.C.-c. 200 A. D.) and on clay sealings (c. 200 A.D.-500 A.D.). The evolution of religious forms in the iconography of gods and goddesses required a twofold effort, viz. a stock taking of the traditional symbols and their assimilation in the various divine images that were being produced from about the first century A. D. in the beginning of the Kushāṇa period under the stress of the Bhakti movement. The Harivaṃśa Purāṇa (2.109.95-103) enlists hundred and eight such symbols (Maṅgalāṣṭaśatam) although the actual names are somewhat less.