The Development of Hindu Iconography c16.47

c16.47

A careful and comparative study of the iconographic texts characterising various types of images of Gaṇeśa leaves little doubt that the earliest of them were either of standing or seated variety and endowed with two arms, the objects held by the hands being a hatchet (*paraśu*) and a radish (*mūlaka*); the elephant-head with only one tooth and the pot-belly are the features invariably present in both the early and late texts. Most of the texts, if not all, describing the general form of Gaṇapati collected by Gopinath Rao from various sources characterise him as four-armed, the only exception being that from the Bṛhatsaṃhitā chapter (57) on Pratimālakṣaṇa. It has already been said that this couplet describing Gaṇapati is suspect, but there is little doubt that it describes the earliest variety of his image in this manner: ‘The lord of the Pramathas (the same as the Gaṇas) should be elephant-faced, pot-bellied, holding a hatchet and a radish, and should have one tooth’ (*Pramathādhipo gajamukhaḥ pralambajaṭharaḥ kuṭhāradhārī syāt | Ekaviṣāṇo bibhran-mūlakakaṇḍam . . . . .*). This is no doubt the description of a two-armed image; there is no mention here, it is true, of a pot of sweet-meat, but the ‘ radish ’ or the bulbous root (mūlakakanda) which is mentioned here is the edible of an elephant. The peculiar trait of ‘ one tooth ’ (ekaviṣāṇa) noted here gave rise to the later explanatory myth referred to by Rao (Vol. I, p. 51; Rao does not mention the name of the Purāṇa where it occurs). The couplet enumerating the various synonyms of Gaṇapati in the Svargavarga section of the Amarakoṣa also contains a reference to the one-tooth, elephant-head and pot-belly of the god (Vināyaka-Vighnarāja-Dvaimātura-Gaṇādhipāḥ | Apyekadanta-Heramba-Lambodara-Gajānanāḥ). The other texts like Amśumadbhedāgama, Uttarakāmikāgama, Suprabhedāgama, Viṣṇudharmottara, Rūpamaṇḍana, etc., invariably endow the god with four hands, the attributes held by them being any four among the following: ‘ own tooth ’ (svadanta), wood-apple (kapittha), sweet-meat (modaka), elephant-goad (aṅkuśa), noose (pāśa), snake (nāga), rosary, lotus, etc. In these later texts, a mouse is very often described as his mount, and his consorts are sometimes mentioned as Bhāratī (another name of Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning), Śrī (Lakṣmī), Vighneśvarī, Buddhi and Kubuddhi. Other characteristic traits which can be gathered from these texts are: his three eyes, his slightly bent (ābhaṅga) or straight (samabhaṅga) pose when standing (sthānaka), tiger-skin garment (vyāghracarmāmbaradhara), sacred thread made of a serpent (vyālayajñopavītī). Many are the iconographic varieties of the god described in the different texts under such names as Bīja-Gaṇapati, Bāla-Gaṇapati, Taruṇa-Gaṇapati, Vīra-Vighneśa, Śakti-Gaṇeśa, Lakṣmī-Gaṇeśa, Mahā-Gaṇeśa, Haridrā-Gaṇeśa, Unmatta-Vināyaka, Nṛtya-Gaṇapati, Ucchiṣṭa-Gaṇapati, Heramba-Gaṇapati, etc. Names of the cult pictures of some of the subdivisions of the Gāṇapatya sect can be recognised in this list, and some forms of the god like Śakti- or Unmatta-Ucchiṣṭa-Gaṇapati seem to be associated with the left-handed (Vāmācāra-Tāntric) variety of his worship. Only a few of the aforesaid forms are actually met with in the Gupta and post-Gupta mediaeval art, and they are thus of great interest in this connection.