The Development of Hindu Iconography c12.46

Language: English

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As regards Viṣṇu and his emblems in the various terracotta seals, a seal from Basarh, numbered 31, described by T. Bloch in A.S.I.A.R., 1903-04 (pp. 110-1, Pl. XL. 3), is highly interesting. Bloch describes it as follows: ‘Ornamental triśūla in the centre, to right staff consisting of seven dots, śaṅkha and solar disc; to left symbol for moon and ornamental wheel; horizontal line below which the two-lined legend is (1) Śrī-Viṣṇupādasvāmī-Nā- (2) rāya(ṇa)’, meaning ‘Nārāyaṇa, the lord of the illustrious Viṣṇupāda.’ Bloch further remarks, ‘This looks as if the seal came from the authorities of a temple of Viṣṇupāda, perhaps the famous shrine at Gaya. If I am right, the seal would prove the existence of this temple in the 4th century A.D.’ (ibid., p. 104). The seal being thus without doubt a Vaiṣṇava one, the central position given to a Śaiva emblem is queer; but the symbol is certainly not ornamental triśūla, but an ornate variant of the much simpler one which is sometimes described as ‘nāga’ symbol, (cf., figs. 11 and 12 in Pl. II). The Bhita seal No. 36, as described by Marshall (A.S.I.A.R., 1911-12, p. 53, Pl. XIX), has symbols of wheel and conch with a variant of the above symbol, named ‘ uncertain symbol ’ by him, between the two; Marshall rightly remarked that the other two symbols being Vaiṣṇava, the intervening one must also be a Vaiṣṇava one, but he was unable to identify it.

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All these different symbols are originally derived from the so-called Nāga symbol just mentioned, in which D. R. Bhandarkar recognised the kaustubha maṇi, the jewel par excellence, which adorns the breast of Viṣṇu (kaustubhamani-bhūṣitoraskaḥ ; Bṛhatsaṃhitā, Ch. 57, v. 31) ; he saw the sign on the breast of the Viṣṇu figure sculptured in the verandah of the cave at Udayagiri, bearing the date 82 (Gupta era) as also on the breast of the Garuḍa which crowned the Besnagar column (A.S.I.A.R., 1913-14, p. 211). A. K. Coomaraswamy, on the other hand, would identify it as the śrīvatsa mark, one of the eight auspicious signs (aṣṭamaṅgalā) in Jain literature and art, which is also a Vaiṣṇava symbol (Ost-Asiatische Zeitschrift, 1927-28, pp. 183-4). Varāhamihira describes the image of Viṣṇu as śrīvatsāṅkitavakṣa and so Coomaraswamy's suggestion is not less likely. In any case, there is no doubt about the Vaiṣṇava character of the symbol and its variants in its present association and we have seen how one form of it appears on the Bhita seal of Saṅkaradatta. Now the symbol on the Viṣṇupāda temple seal described by Bloch as ‘ a staff consisting of seven dots ’ (Pl. I, Fig. 12) is nothing but the Indian variant of the peculiar club shown in the hands of Śiva on Maues' coin, the biscriptual copper seal of Śivarakṣita, and in one of the hands of the four-armed composite god on the nicolo seal wrongly attributed by Cunningham to Huvishka already described in Chapter IV.

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This peculiar kind of club (gadā) is placed on the back right hand of one four-armed Viṣṇu image of late Kushan or still later period, that was discovered at Taxila (A.S.I.A.R., 1935-36, Pl. XIa) ; it is also similar to the handle of a trident placed in the front left hand of a late mediæval image of the Īśāna aspect of Śiva, belonging to the eastern school of Indian sculpture. Thus, though in the early representations, numismatic as well as sculptural, the emblem in question is associated with Śiva as well as Viṣṇu, yet there is no doubt about its closer association with the latter in later times, though in a changed manner; in its Viṣṇuite association it is to be described as a variant of gadā, while in its Śivaite one, as a form of daṇḍa. Now the remaining symbols on the seal in question, śaṅkha on one side and cakra on the other, are undoubtedly Vaiṣṇava emblems, the sun and the moon being shown as adjuncts on the top; and in a temple seal of Śrī Viṣṇupāda-Svāmī Nārāyaṇa all these are quite appropriate.¹ The seals numbering 32 and 34 described by Bloch (A.S.I.A.R., 1903-04, p. 111, Pl. XLI) bear ornamental wheel on altar with two śaṅkhas on either side; the former bears the legend in two lines below the horizontal line with its ends turned up, Jayaty-ananto bhagavān s-Ambaḥ, translated by him as ‘Victorious is the lord Ananta (Śiva) with Ambā (Durgā).’ But the emblems being Vaiṣṇava, Ananta and Ambā here refer to Vāsudeva-Viṣṇu (cf.

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Bhagavadgītā, VI, 16—Arjuna describes the Lord—Paśyāmi tvāṃ sarvato’nantarūpam, Nāntaṃ na madhyaṃ na punastavādim; temples of god Ananta Vāsudeva are known from mediæval times onward) and his consort Lakṣmī (standing for Ambā which also means mother). The seal No. 37 has the śrīvatsa (wrongly described as shield by Bloch) on an altar flanked by two śaṅkhas, with a two-line inscription, Jitaṃ bhagavato’nantasya namde(śva)rīvara-svāmina(h), the reading of which is doubtful; Bloch translates it thus, ‘Victorious is the Lord Ananta (Śiva), the chosen husband of Nandeśvarī (Durgā)’. The same remark as has been made with regard to Bloch’s interpretation of the legend on No. 32 is applicable here; Nandeśvarī is no doubt another synonym of Durgā, but it could also mean Lakṣmī, the consort of Viṣṇu (in the lexicons Nanda is given as another name of the god)—the character of the emblems supporting the above suggestion. Spooner's excavations in the Basarh site in 1913-14 brought up among others a few seals which are unique from the standpoint of Viṣṇuite iconography. The seal No. 54, without legend bears on its oval area a finely executed figure of a boar recumbent to the left; the boar represents the Varāha avatāra of Viṣṇu. But the oval seal No. 191 is one of the most interesting in the series, for it shows the figure of Nṛsiṃha, his man-lion incarnation, seated facing in the lalitāsana pose on a high pedestal; his right arm is raised, while the left rests on hip;

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the legend, however, is extremely faint, and no certain reading of it can be offered. Spooner rightly remarks that 'it provides us with our oldest datable representation of the deity Nṛsiṃha in India'; the sealing is certainly of Gupta date. This device is very important, for it definitely shows that as early as the period when it was manufactured, this particular incarnatory form of Viṣṇu had acquired the form of the regular cult-picture usually placed in the main sanctum of a temple; it is distinct from the elaborate reliefs illustrative of the mythology underlying this incarnation, which were usually prominently placed in the subsidiary shrines in a Vaiṣṇava temple.