The Development of Hindu Iconography c12.9

c12.9

Nāga with hands uplifted in prayer (M.I.C., Vol. III, CXVI, 29 and CXVIII, 11). It is not quite clear, however, from these two seal devices whether the snake-body is attached to the back of the kneeling human votaries of the god; in the early Kushan and subsequent representations of the Nāgas at Mathura and other sites, the whole serpent-body and sometimes only its one or many hoods (five or seven) are invariably attached behind the human body (the latter mode is also adopted in the Śuṅga art of Central India). But on these seals, the technique of showing the Nāgas might have been somewhat similar to the one followed by the Bharhut artist in his presentation of the scene of Elāpatra Nāgarāja's visit to the Buddha; at first Elāpatra is shown in his serpent form, then he is given the human shape with the snake hoods attached behind his head. On these Indus-valley seals, the snakes appear on the far sides while the kneeling human figurines, without any snake hood, on the near sides of the god.