The Development of Hindu Iconography c16.32

c16.32

The Gandharvas and Kinnaras are two other classes of mythical beings of a semi-divine character, which played a secondary part in the religious literature and art of ancient and mediaeval India. One of the earliest references to the former is to be found in the same section of the *Atharvaveda* (VIII. 10) wherefrom the allusions to the Yakṣas and the Nāgas have been cited above. The Gandharvas are mentioned in this context with the Apsarasas (‘ the maidens of the waters ’), and special mention is made here of Citraratha, Vasuruci and Sūryavarcas in this connection. In post-Vedic literature their names are often found associated with various myths, and Citraratha is almost invariably described as the king of the Gandharvas in the *Mahābhārata* and the *Rāmāyaṇa*. The Gandharvas are believed to be the denizens of the air or atmospheric region, and the towns associated with their name, *Gandharva nagaras*, are supposed to have no real existence. This belief is found very early, for we find Patañjali referring to it while commenting on a *Vārttika* of Pāṇini’s *Sūtra*, *Striyām* (IV. 3).¹ But it has not prevented in any way the formation of concrete concepts about their physical forms in the minds of the Indians from early times. They are described in some comparatively late iconographic texts such as *Mānasāra*, *Mayasaṃgraha* (as quoted by Hemādri in his *Caturvargacintāmaṇi*, *Vratakhaṇḍa*, Part I, p. 139), etc. *Mānasāra* in its section on *Yakṣa-Vidyādharadilakṣaṇam* describes the Gandharvas and Kinnaras together, but the verses are corrupt. The description given here seems to characterise both as having animal-like legs (really lower part of the body), the upper part being human in form with a face like that of Garuḍa; their arms are endowed with wings, (they wear) lotus crown and (have) colour of the shade of a flower; they are also associated with sweet songs and musical instruments.¹ In Chapter VII of this book a distinction has been made between these two iconographic types, and Kinnarīs have been equated with horse-faced (Aśvamukhī) Yakṣiṇīs. But the Mānasāra does not seem to distinguish between the two. The Mayasaṃgraha does not at all refer to the hybrid form of the Gandharvas (Kinnaras are not described here), but gives a general idea about them in this way: ‘The Gandharva, handsome in appearance, should be made as conferring boon on his devotees, wearing a crown and ear-ornaments, holding a club, and engaged in playing on a lyre’.²