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The Development of Hindu Iconography c17: Chapter X: Cult Icons—Viṣṇu and Sūrya

The Development of Hindu Iconography c17

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Chapter X: Cult Icons—Viṣṇu and Sūrya

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CULT ICONS

Viṣṇu

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One of the most important of the Brahmanical cults that came into being some centuries before the beginning of the Christian era centered round Viṣṇu, but this god was not identical with the Vedic Viṣṇu. The latter, though not one of the major gods in the Ṛgveda, was of some importance there. The feat associated with him in the Ṛk and the other Vedas is that of his having traversed the whole of the universe with three strides (R.V., 122; A.V., VII. 26, 4). He is endowed in these texts with such attributive epithets as urukrama, urugāya (‘he of the great strides’), trivikrama (‘he of the three strides’) etc. Sākapuni, one of the ancient Vedic commentators, interprets the three steps as the course of the solar deity through the three divisions of the universe, the god being manifest in a threefold form, as Agni on earth, Indra or Vāyu in the atmosphere and Sūrya in the sky. Auṛṇabhāva, another old interpreter of the Vedas, however, is of opinion that the three strides relate to the apparent progress of the sun through the firmament. These ‘three steps’ in course of time developed into the myth relating to the dwarf incarnation of the Purāṇic Viṣṇu (the fifth one, Vāmanāvatāra, in the stereotyped list of the Daśāvatāras). The idea of motion, swift far-extending regular motion, is constantly associated with Viṣṇu in the Vedas; but the special character of the Purāṇic god as the preserver and benevolent deliverer is also outlined there. His gradual rise to importance in the late Vedic period, however, was primarily due to his having been identified with sacrifice. The Satapatha Brāhmaṇa (XIV. 1, 1) records a myth in which Viṣṇu was identified with Sacrifice, for he became the most eminent among the gods by first comprehending its nature. Still there is no doubt about the fact that even in the period of the Brāhmaṇas he did not appear as the central figure in a cult pre-eminently theistic in character, which would require the making of his images.

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In the epic and Purāṇic age Viṣṇu is regarded as the most influential member of the later Brahmanical triad, Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva,—the Creator, the Preserver and the Destroyer. But this Viṣṇu, round whom one of the major Brahmanical cults grew up, was really a result of the syncretism of three god-concepts,—the man-god Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa, the Vedic sun-god Viṣṇu and the cosmic god Nārāyaṇa of the Brāhmaṇas. Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa, the Sātvata hero, was really at the root of the Bhakti cult that came to be designated as Vaiṣṇava at a comparatively late stage in its growth, its earlier names being Ekāntika, Bhāgavata, Pāñcarātra, Sātvata, etc. This Kṣatriya chief with some of his relations, Saṃkarṣaṇa (his elder brother), Pradyumna (his eldest son by Rukmiṇī), Śamba (his son by Jāmbavatī) and Aniruddha (Pradyumna’s son) came to be deified by his followers and admirers. In the cult that grew around him, he and his relations were at first assigned the position of the hero-gods, the holy Pañcavīras of the Vṛṣṇi clan (cf. the Mora Well inscription and the Vāyupurāṇa passage already noted in Chapter III); but shortly afterwards, Śamba was eliminated from this list of deified heroes by the theologians of the cult, and the remaining four (Vāsudeva as the fountain-head, the three others being his successive emanatory forms) were regarded as typifying the different aspects of the one great god Para Vāsudeva. The systematisers of the cult-tenets did not take much time in transforming the Vīra concept about the central deity and some of his relations into the Vyūha or ‘emanation’ concept; to this was added the Vibhava or ‘incarnation’ concept of the principal cult-god Vāsudeva identified with Viṣṇu and Nārāyaṇa sometime before the beginning of the Christian era. According to the re-orientated ideology of the cult, the one god Vāsudeva-Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa could be conceived in his fivefold aspects or forms; these were ‘Para’—the highest, ‘Vyūha’—the emanatory, ‘Vibhava’—the incarnatory, ‘Antaryāmin’—the inner controller of all beings, and ‘Arccā’—the images (named as Vigrahas or the ‘very bodies’) of the god. It is with the last aspect of the god that the students of iconography are directly concerned; this aspect really illustrates the first three, ‘Para’, ‘Vyūha’ and ‘Vibhava’, forms of the Lord. The fourth or ‘Antaryāmin’ aspect does not fall within the purview of the iconographer, for the god as such ‘resides in the heart of all and regulates their actions’.¹

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¹ Bhagavadgītā, XVIII, 61: Īśvaraḥ sarvabhūtānām hṛddeśe'rjjuna tiṣṭhati | Bhrāmayan sarvabhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā ||

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‘Para’ stands for the highest aspect of the god, the supreme cause and the final resting place of everything. His divine will (icchā) is projected towards his consort Śrī-Lakṣmī who in her dual aspects of ‘matter’ and ‘action’ (bhūti and kriyā) receives it, and due to the close combination of these three powers (Icchāśakti, Bhūtiśakti and the Kriyāśakti) six ideal Guṇas (attributes) are brought into being. They are Jñāna (‘knowledge’), Aiśvarya (‘lordship’) Śakti (ability, potency’), Bala (‘strength’), Vīrya (‘virility’) and Tejas (‘splendour’). ‘They are separated into two sets, 1 to 3 forming one, and 4 to 6 forming the other, and the corresponding Guṇas of each set (1 and 4, 2 and 5, 3 and 6) join to form a pair connected with some special divine manifestation’. The totality of all the six Guṇas along with the three pairs resorts to and makes up the subtle bodies of Vāsudeva, Saṃkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, which are called the four Vyūhas (the Caturvyūhas or the Caturmūrtis). But the Pāñcarātrins speak of a chain of emanations,—Saṃkarṣaṇa the possessor of Jñāna and Bala, emanating from Vāsudeva in whom all the six Guṇas are manifest, Pradyumna having Aiśvarya and Vīrya from Saṃkarṣaṇa, and Aniruddha with Śakti and Tejas from Pradyumna. The concept of the Caturvyūhas seems to have been first formulated in the second century B.C., for Patañjali seems to refer to it.¹ The number of the Vyūhas was later increased to twenty-four (Caturviṃśatimūrtis) in the Gupta period or a little later by the Pāñcarātra theologians, in an esoteric manner, and twenty of the most auspicious names of the principal cult-god (he had been endowed with as many as 108 or even 1000 names in different contexts) were regarded as the names of these added Vyūhas. It may be mentioned here that the separate iconic representations of these 24 Vyūhas or Mūrtis of Viṣṇu (in the developed phase of the cult the central deity was named thus, from whom the name of the cult became Vaiṣṇava) in the early and late mediaeval periods are very difficult to distinguish from one another; they are almost identical, the subtle distinction only lying in the different ways of placing the four emblems of the four-armed god—śaṅkha, cakra, gadā and padma.²

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¹ Mahābhāṣya (comment on P. VI, 3, 5); Janārdanastvātma caturtha eva. The discovery of the 1st or 2nd century B.C. *dhvajas* of three of the Vyūhas, Vāsudeva, Saṃkarṣaṇa and Pradyumna, at Besnagar supports this statement; they are Garuḍadhvaja, Tāladhvaja and Mīna (or Makara) dhvaja (cf. Ch. III, pp. 103-05; another Tāladhvaja found at Pawaya is illustrated in Pl. XXVII, Fig. 3).

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² Besides the 4 primary Vyūhas, the names of the 20 secondary ones are :—Keśava, Nārāyaṇa, Mādhava, Govinda, Viṣṇu, Madhusūdana, Trivikrama, Vāmana, Śrīdhara, Hṛṣīkeśa, Padmanābha, Dāmodara, Puruṣottama, Adhokṣaja, Nṛsiṃha, Acyuta, Janārddana, Upendra, Hari and Kṛṣṇa (*Rūpamaṇḍana*; the *Padmapurāṇa* list quoted by Rao has 21 names including those of the primary Vyūhas and omits the last three names but Kṛṣṇa).

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The doctrine of the Vibhavas (Avatāras, *i.e.*, incarnatory forms), was no less a component part of the Pāñcarātra or the Bhāgavata creed than that of the Vyūhas. The difference between the two lies in the fact that we have some evidence regarding the existence of the former in the later Vedic texts, whereas there is none about the existence of the latter in them. The term *avatāra* is applied to the act of the god coming down in the form of a man or an animal to the earth and living there in that form till the purpose for which he had descended in the universe was fulfilled; it also sometimes denotes the assumption of different forms by the god for the attainment of particular objects. It is thus distinct from identification (where one deity is identified with another), or emanation (as illustrated by the Vyūha doctrine).

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It is also different from the ‘possession’ of one individual entity by the divinity, in which the latter takes up temporary abode in the former; but this idea of ‘possession’, as will be shown later, has to some extent been manifest in the story of the Paraśurāma incarnation of Viṣṇu. In the Pāñcarātra theology, the Vibhavas (vi-bhū-al, i.e., ‘the act of becoming in a special manner’) belong to Pure Creation (śuddhasṛṣṭi) to which the Vyūhas also belong; these incarnations, however, may not only be of the composite god Viṣṇu himself, but also may be of his Vyūhas, sub-Vyūhas and Pārṣadas (companions), or even of his attributes or emblems. One of the earliest references to the assumption of some forms by the divinity for the attainment of particular ends is to be found in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa and the Taittirīya Saṃhitā where Prajāpati is said to have assumed Fish (Matsya), Tortoise (Kūrma) and Boar (Varāha) forms on different occasions for the furtherance of creation and the well-being of the created. When the doctrine of incarnations in its association with Vāsudeva-Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa was well established, all these three were bodily transferred to that composite god, and were regarded as some of his celestial (divya) incarnations. The Indian ideology about the Avatāras of the Divine Being is, however, briefly but clearly expounded (specially with reference to the god’s human incarnations) in two verses of the fourth chapter of the Bhagavadgītā.¹ This work is regarded by R. G. Bhandarkar as one of the earliest to contain expositions of some of the tenets of the Ekāntika school, though the Vyūhavāda, one of the most important doctrines of the Pāñcarātra school, is conspicuous by its absence there.

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¹ Bhagavadgītā, IV, 7-8 : Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānirbhavati Bhārata | Abhyutthānamadharmasya tadātmānaṃ sṛjāmyaham || Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṃ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām | Dharmasaṃsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge ||

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The Bhagavadgītā passage just mentioned explains the ideology underlying the Avatāravāda in the Hindu thought in the clearest possible manner. It does not rightly specify the number of the Divine Incarnations, for the god ‘creates himself age after age as the conditions in the universe demand'. Some later texts, many among them of the Pāñcarātra school, have been at pains to fix the number of the Avatāras, which gradually came to be stereotyped as 'ten' (Daśāvatāras). A brief reference to a few of the epic, Purāṇic and Pāñcarātra passages enumerating the various incarnations will be useful for our understanding of many Vaiṣṇava images. If we study them together, we shall not only recognise in some of these enumerations all the stereotyped ten (this list also sometimes varies in the north and south of India) whose icons are common, but also find the names of many Avatāras whose images, though not so common, are also known. The Nārāyaṇīya section of the Mahābhārata refers in one list (XII, 349, 37) to the Varāha, the Vāmana, the Narasimha and the 'Man' incarnations. The human incarnations refer, no doubt, to Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa, Bhārgava Rāma and Dāśarathi Rāma, for in Chapter 389 (verses 77-90) of the same section not only the stories about the first three in the list given above are briefly narrated, but also those about his incarnations as Bhārgava Rāma (Paraśurāma), Dāśarathi Rāma and Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa are recounted.

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But a fuller list of the incarnations is given in verse 104 of the same chapter, which contains the names of Haṃsa, Kūrma, Matsya, Varāha, Narasimha, Vāmana, Rāma (Bhārgava), Rāma (Dāśarathi), Sātvata (Vāsudeva or Baladeva, for both of them are of the Sātvata race) and Kalkin. The number ten is to be noted here, and the absence of Buddha in this list may show that Buddha had not as yet been regarded as an Avatāra. In the Vāyupurāṇa (Chapter 98, verses 71ff.) mention is made of ten incarnations of Viṣṇu, of which the first three, Yajña, Narasimha and Vāmana, are celestial, the rest being human incarnations; they are Dattātreya, one unnamed in the Tretāyuga simply called the Fifth, Jāmadagnya Rāma, Dāśarathi Rāma, Vedavyāsa, Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa, and Kalkin, the future incarnation. Here also Buddha is conspicuous by his absence, and a few other constituents of the stereotyped list of ten, Matsya, Kūrma and Varāha, are replaced by Yajña, Dattātreya and Vedavyāsa. The Bhāgavatapurāṇa enumerates the Avatāras thrice; in the first recounting (I. 3, 6-22), the number is 22, in the second (II. 7, 1ff.), 23, and in the third (XI. 4, 3ff.), 16.

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The first list contains the names of (1) Puruṣa, (2) Varāha, (3) Nārada, (4) Nara and Nārāyaṇa (together), (5) Kapila, (6) Dattātreya, (7) Yajña, (8) Ṛṣabha, (9) Pṛthu, (10) Matsya, (11) Kūrma, (12) Dhanvantari, (13) Mohinī, (14) Narasimha, (15) Vāmana, (16) Bhārgava Rāma, (17) Vedavyāsa, (18) Dāśarathi Rāma, (19) Balarāma, (20) Kṛṣṇa, (21) Buddha and (22) Kalkin. This enumeration contains the names of all the usual ten in the stereotyped list, but the Purāṇakāra does not fail to emphasise that ‘the divine descents are innumerable’ (Avatārāḥ hyaṣaṃkhyeyāḥ). The difference of this list from the other two is immaterial, the last omitting some included in the first; but none of them omits Ṛṣabha (Ādinātha or Ṛṣabhanātha, the first Tīrthaṃkara of the Jainas) and Buddha. The Varāha and Agnipurāṇas contain the stereotyped list of ten incarnations, while the Matsyapurāṇa (Ch. 47 V. 46) lays down that Viṣṇu was born seven times among men because he was cursed by Bhṛgu for killing his wife, the mother of Śukra. These seven are (1) Dattātreya, (2) Māndhātā, (3) Jāmadagnya (Paraśurāma of the race of Bhṛgu), (4) Rāma, the son of Daśaratha, (5) Vedavyāsa, (6) Buddha and (7) Kalkin; by adding three others, those of Nārāyaṇa, Narasimha and Vāmana (probably meant to be celestial ones), the full quota of ten is made up, though this list of Daśāvatāras widely differs from the usually accepted one;

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as many as four here, Dattātreya, Māndhātā, Vedavyāsa and Nārāyaṇa, are the substitutes of Matsya, Kūrma, Varāha and Balarāma (or rarely Kṛṣṇa) of the usual list.

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The evidence of the early and late Pāñcarātra Saṃhitās requires to be separately considered. The Sātvata Saṃhitā, one of the earliest in the series, enumerates as many as 39 incarnatory forms of the Lord, which list is copied almost verbatim by the Ahirbudhnya Saṃhitā, evidently later in point of date than the Sātvata. These are: (1) Padmanābha, (2) Dhruva, (3) Ananta, (4) Śaktyātman, (5) Madhusūdana, (6) Vidyādhideva, (7) Kapila, (8) Viśvarūpa, (9) Vihaṅgama, (10) Kroḍātman, (11) Baḍavāvaktra, (12) Dharma, (13) Vāgī- śvara, (14) Ekārṇavaśāyin, (15) Kamaṭheśvara, (16) Varāha, (17) Narasimha, (18) Pīyūṣaharaṇa, (19) Śrīpati, (20) Kāntātman, (21) Rāhujit, (22) Kālanemighna, (23) Pārijātahara, (24) Lokanātha, (25) Śāntātman, (26) Dattātreya, (27) Nyagrodhaśāyin, (28) Ekaśṛṅgatanu, (29) Vāmanadeha, (30) Trivikrama, (31) Nara, (32) Nārāyaṇa, (33) Hari, (34) Kṛṣṇa, (35) Paraśurāma, (36) Rāma Dhanurdhara, (37) Vedavid, (38) Kalkin, (39) Pātālaśayana. In this curious assortment, one can not only recognise the accepted ten names, a few of the sub-Vyūhas, as well as other Avatāras in the Purāṇic list quoted above, but also find in other names such as Vāgīśvara (no. 13) and Lokanātha (no. 24) deities belonging to the Mahāyāna Buddhist pantheon. Schrader attempts to identify many of these Avatāras on the basis of Purāṇic and other enumerations, and has been partially successful in his effort. But he has failed to recognise the identity of Śāntātman, (No. 25) in the list, who is no other than Buddha himself.¹ The name Śāntātman exactly corresponds to Śāntamanas, an epithet used in the Bṛhatsaṃhitā (Ch. 58, 19) to signify Buddha, and the Agnipurāṇa (Ch. 49, 8) uses the very word Śāntātman in describing (the image of) Buddha (Śāntātmā lambakarṇaśca gaurāṅgaścāmbarāvṛtaḥ; reference to the long pendulous ears of the Buddha image in this passage is to be noted). Thus, all the usual ten Avatāras can be recognised in the fuller list, and if Schrader's observation that 'the list of 39 Avatāras occurring in one of the very oldest Saṃhitās is older than the smaller lists found in later Saṃhitās, and older even than the Mahābhārata and Nārāyaṇīya lists, which appear to be mere selections' (op. cit. p. 47) is correct, then the inclusion of Buddha in it is significant.² Some of the later Saṃhitās like the Ahirbudhnya and the Viśvaksena distinguish between primary (mukhya) and secondary (gauṇa, āveśa) Avatāras. The latter says that the primary ones are like flame issuing from a flame (Viṣṇu himself with aprākṛta body), while the secondary ones are souls in bondage with a prākṛta body which is possessed (āviṣṭa) for some particular mission or function by the Sakti of Viṣṇu. Brahmā, Śiva, Buddha, Vyāsa, Arjuna, Paraśurāma, the Vasu called Pāvaka (Agni) and Kubera are, according to this text, some of the gauṇa Avatāras. This text also expatiates on the great sanctity of the Arccā Avatāras, the images of the god and his various aspects, in which the divinity really descends according to the tenets of the developed creed of the Pāñcarātrins and Śrī-Vaiṣṇavas. Lastly, it may be pointed out that a quantitative study of the names of the Vyūhas and Vibhavas as enumerated in the different lists shows that the same name or form may denote either of the two aspects of the cult-god; a typical example of which is Saṃkarṣaṇa-Balarāma who is not only a primary Vyūha, but also a Vibhava. It should be noted, however, that iconic representations of Vyūha-Saṃkarṣaṇa and Vibhava-Saṃkarṣaṇa are different.

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¹ F. O. Schrader, Introduction to the Pāñcarātra and the Ahirbudhnya Saṃhitā, pp. 43-6; Śāntātman, according to him, stands either for Sanatkumāra or Nārada.

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² The stereotyped ten in this bigger list are: Nos. 28 (1. Matsya,—The fish incarnation had only one horn to which Manu's boat was bound), 15 (2. Kūrma), 16 (3. Varāha), 17 (4. Narasimha), 29-30 (5. Vāmana), 35 (6. Paraśurāma), 36 (7. Dāśarathi Rāma), 3 (8. Balarāma; Ananta in the Sātvata list is explained by Schrader as 'not the serpent Śeṣa, but Balarāma, the brother of Kṛṣṇa, who is sometimes regarded as an incarnation of Śeṣa rather than of Viṣṇu himself), 25 (9. Buddha) and 38 (10. Kalkin).

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It has been necessary to delineate in the preceding pages a few of the principal tenets of the Bhakti cult centering round Vāsudeva-Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa, because a knowledge of the same is essential for the correct understanding of the different ideologies underlying the various types of the Viṣṇuite icons. The central idea behind the tenets was essentially monotheistic, and an intelligent Pāñcarātra devotee would find in all the varieties of the icons (Arccās) of the Para, Vyūha and Vibhava aspects of his ‘god of gods’ (cf. devadeva Vāsudeva of the Besnagar inscription of Heliodorus) his different manifestations. In Chapters III, IV and V of this book, the epigraphic, numismatic and glyptic data regarding the prevalence of the cult in various parts of India from the Śuṅga to the Gupta periods have been discussed at some length. It will not be possible here to consider the large number of literary data concerning the progress of the creed, other than those noticed occasionally. But before the iconography of several of the different types of Viṣṇuite icons are discussed at some length, it will be of interest to say something about the part played by the Pāñcarātrins in the dissemination of the practice of image-worship in ancient and mediaeval India. The images worshipped by them were principally anthropomorphic, occasionally theriomorphic or therio-anthropomorphic, and the Pāñcarātra theologians exulted in endowing their god and many of his various aspects with human traits.

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They even went to the length of personalising the weapons and emblems of the god of their choice and representing them in human form as Āyudhapuruṣas. There was some difference between them and their Śaiva counterparts in this respect, for the Śaiva devotees came to worship their god in his principal emblem, the Śivaliṅga, which was almost invariably enshrined in the main sanctum of the shrines of Śiva from a very early time. It is not meant, however, by this that the anthropomorphic images of Śiva were not held in high esteem by the Śaivas, but these were mainly utilised as decorative reliefs and sculptures in the Śaiva temples, many of which illustrated the different myths associated with Śiva and his various aspects.¹ The Pāñcarātrins or the Vaiṣṇavas, on the other hand, seldom (if at all) enshrined a mere emblem of their god in the main sanctum, the aniconic emblems like the Śālagrāmas being given a subsidiary position in the public shrines or worshipped in private chapels of the individual householders. The Nārada Pañcarātra (Bhāradvāja Saṃhitā Pariśiṣṭa, III, 57-8) tells us that ‘Hari is to be always worshipped in images; but when these are wanting, then alone other objects are to be used for this purpose. Of these objects again, Śālagrāmas are the best, for a Śālagrāma stone is the celestial form of Hari’.

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The Besnagar and Nagari inscriptions of the pre-Christian period, undoubtedly refer to the existence of Bhāgavata shrines in the ancient towns of Vidiśā and Madhyamikā. The images that were once installed in them must have been destroyed in course of time. Epigraphic data about the erection of similar shrines at Mathura and other places in the early centuries of the Christian era have to some extent been corroborated by the actual finds of Viṣṇuite images. The temples (devagṛhas) which housed them might not always have been elaborate structures, but were sacred places with these cult objects placed on raised pedestals (cf. the utthitā āsakāḥ of the Yakṣas mentioned by Patañjali, supra, p. 338) inside them very carefully fenced off by railings. The Nagari and Mathura inscriptions emphasise these railings (cf. the word pūjāśilāprākāra in the former and vedikā in the latter), though the latter also mentions the erection of a toraṇa (gateway) and a devakula (temple) in the Mahāsthāna of Vāsudeva. Early numismatic data, occasionally indicating the existence of structural shrines (cf. some coins of the Audumbaras and a few of Huvishka), very frequently show the railings which usually demarcated these Sthānas.¹

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¹ The Vīraśaivas or Liṅgāyats, a comparatively late branch of the Śaiva sect, were averse to the practice of worshipping the deity in his anthropomorphic form; to them the Śivaliṅga was the most sacred object symbolising the greatness of the divinity, and they carried it on their body in some form or other throughout life from the time of their initiation.

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¹ The railings which are very often depicted beneath the feet of many Yakṣas, Yakṣiṇīs, Nāgas and Nāginīs in the early Buddhist art of Central India, though serving the purpose of pedestals of these Vyantara devatās, really indicate the fences of their shrines.

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A few words about the sectarian exclusiveness of the Vaiṣṇavas, especially with regard to their ritualistic practice, will not be out of place here. This exclusive spirit is more noticeable in such late works as the apocryphal Nārada Pañcarātra. It says that ‘such gods as Brahmā, Rudra, Dikpālas, Sūrya, their Śaktis or their children should neither be worshipped daily, nor ever be resorted to for the fulfilment of any desire. No (Vaiṣṇava) should stay for a single day or take food and drink in a house or a village in which there are no images of Viṣṇu. Images enshrined and worshipped by heretics and Śaivas are always to be shunned; all the gods (i.e., their images), even if they are worshipped according to the rituals prescribed for them, should be avoided. No food ought to be taken (by a Vaiṣṇava) in the house of one, where there are images of other divinities, but Janārddana (i.e., his image) is absent, even if the householder be well-versed in the Vedāntas'.¹ This, however, presents to us only one side of the picture. What a striking contrast to this is the mental attitude showing the catholicity of spirit found in the Bhagavadgītā!²

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¹ Bhāradvāja Saṃhitā Pariśiṣṭa, IV, 4, 28, 30-1.

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² IV. 11; IX. 23: Ye yathā māṃ prapadyante tāmstathaiva bhajāmyaham | Mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ Pārtha sarvaśaḥ || . . . . Ye'pyanyadevatābhaktā yojante śraddhayānvitāḥ | Te'pi māmeva Kaunteya yajantyavidhipūrvakam ||

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Numerous are the iconographic texts which describe the images of Viṣṇu and his various aspects, one of the earliest among them being the five couplets in the Bṛhatsaṃhitā. But this description is is of a general nature, which refers mainly to the number of the hands of the god, to the marks and ornaments on his body, his colour, the weapons and attributes held by his hands, etc.³ There is no mention of his attendants, of the 'attitude' (standing, seated or recumbent) in which he is to be shown and of many other important and necessary details. As has just been pointed out, the Viṣṇuite images have to be divided into three groups of Para, Vyūha and Vibhava, the Dhruvaberas described in the Vaikhānāsāgama, an early Pāñcarātra text, most probably symbolising in a way the first group. Descriptions of the Vyūha and Vibhava groups are found in this and many other iconographic texts incorporated in the Pāñcarātra Saṃhitās, Purāṇas etc., a few only of which can be noticed in connection with the account of these image-groups. Some of the major accessories to the Vaiṣṇava images, like Garuḍa and the Āyudhapuruṣas will also have to be accounted for in a subsequent chapter. But it will be of interest now to study briefly but critically the Vaikhānāsāgama account of the Dhruvaberas of Viṣṇu. According to it, there are as many as thirty-six varieties of such images. This classification has already been briefly noticed in Chapter I, p. 26, f.n. 2, of this book. First, the different Dhruva (according to Rao ‘immovable’ or permanently enshrined) types of images are divided into four broad varieties, yoga, bhoga, vīra and abhicārika by name on the basis of particular results to be attained by the devotee after worshipping them; then, each of these groups is subdivided into three classes according to the ‘attitude’ in which such images are shown—sthānaka (standing), āsana (seated) and sayana (recumbent);¹ lastly, everyone of these twelve sub-groups is divided into three classes as uttama, madhyama and adhama, according to the number of accessory figures that cluster round the central deity.² Images of the Buddha can also be grouped under three heads, standing, seated and recumbent, but in their case particular incidents in the life of the Master are associated with most of these varieties; the earlier specimens of the standing Buddha figures, though dignified by calm repose, are also frequently shown as stepping forward and thus are not fully static in their pose. But the sthānaka varieties of Viṣṇu images are shown in ṛjvāyata or samapādasthānaka (straight, frontal and static) pose without the suggestion of any perceptible movement in them. As regards the uttama, madhyama and adhama orders, reference may be made to Grünwedel's interesting observation about the ‘parallel compositions’ in the Hellenistic art of Gandhāra. He remarks about the reliefs depicting scenes from Buddha's life and their replicas, ‘besides slabs where the figures are numerous, a scriptio plena as one might say, there is often found a defectiva which retains the main design but curtails the rest, thus frequently omitting just what is most important’ (Buddhist Art, p. 125).

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³ Ch. 57, vv. 31-5; Kāryo'ṣṭabhujo bhagavāṃścaturbhujo dvibhujo eva vā Viṣṇuḥ | Śrīvatsāṅkitavakṣaḥ kaustubhamanibhūṣitoraskaḥ || Atasīkusumaśyāmaḥ pītāmbaranivasanaḥ prasannamukhaḥ | Kuṇḍalakirīṭadhārī pīnagalorassthalāṃsabhujaḥ || Khaḍgagadāśarapānirdakṣiṇataḥśāntidaścaturthakaraḥ | Vāmakareṣu ca kārmukakheṭakacakrāṇi śaṅkhaśca || Atha ca caturbhujamicchanti śāntida eko gadādharaścānyaḥ | Dakṣiṇapārśve hyevam vāme śaṅkhaśca cakram ca || Dvibhujasya tu śāntikaro dakṣiṇahasto'paraśca śaṅkhadharaḥ | Evam Viṣṇoḥ pratimā kartavyā bhūtimicchadbhiḥ || The gist of the extract is as follows :—' Eight, four or two should be the number of Viṣṇu's hands; his breast should be adorned with the śrīvatsa mark and the kaustubha jewel; his colour should be of that of the atasī flower (yellowish green), he should wear yellow garments, ear-rings, jewelled crown; (when eight-armed), his right hands should show a sword, a mace, an arrow and abhaya mudrā; while his left ones should hold a bow, a shield, a wheel and a conch-shell; if he is four-armed, his right hands should show an assurance pose (abhaya mudrā) and a mace, the left hands holding a conch-shell and a wheel; in a two-armed Viṣṇu, the right hand should be in the abhaya pose, the left one holding a conch-shell.'

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¹ Rao refers to some south Indian Viṣṇu temples the central shrines of which have three storeys, ‘each storey being occupied by an image of Viṣṇu, the standing, sitting and reclining images being placed in the lowermost, middle and uppermost storeys in order’; op. cit., Vol. I., Pt. I, p. 79.

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² Vaikhānāsāgama as quoted by T. A. G. Rao, op. cit., Vol. I, Appendix C, pp. 17-26.

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The Vaikhānasāgama classification of the Vaiṣṇava Dhruvaberas is not to be found in most (if not all) of the other iconographic texts dealing with such icons. When Gopinath Rao says that ‘the materials for the description of the images of Viṣṇu are not so abundant as they are in the case of the images of Śiva’, he presumably means that there are not many texts like this particular one; for he himself has collected a number of relevant texts associated with Viṣṇu under Vaiṣṇavamūrtyantarāṇi (‘other varieties of Viṣṇu images’) in the Appendix C to the first Volume of his monumental work. These texts help us a great deal in identifying and describing the many varieties of these icons of the ancient, mediaeval and subsequent periods found in different parts of India. The Vaikhānasāgama mode of grouping the main images of Viṣṇu as ‘standing’, ‘seated’ and ‘reclining’ would very well be applicable to all such images, for most of them are shown in one or other of these poses. The other basis of classification into yoga, bhoga, vīra and abhicārika groups, however, is only occasionally followed in the north and even in the south of India. Even when Viṣṇu is depicted seated in yogāsana with his ‘natural’ (front) hands in the dhyānamudrā, he is lavishly decorated with ornaments, and sometimes accompanied by both or one of his consorts (Śrī and Puṣṭi or Sarasvatī according to the north Indian convention, or Śrī and Bhū according to the south Indian custom), indicating that such images fall under both the classes, yoga and bhoga. Rao himself could not illustrate the vīra and abhicārika varieties from south India.¹ A plausible explanation of the paucity or complete absence of the last two varieties can be suggested. As the second of them was certainly of an inauspicious character, such a one was most probably not preserved after worship. Rao says: ‘The abhicārika form which is worshipped for the purpose of inflicting defeat and death on enemies is looked upon as inauspicious and is unfit to be set up for worship in temples built in towns and villages’ (op. cit., Vol. I, Pt. I, pp. 20-1). These were set up and worshipped in forests, mountains, marshy tracts, fortresses and other such places (vanagirijaladurge rāṣṭrānte śatrudin-mukhe). One Abhicārikasthānakamūrti was recognised by me in the black chlorite Viṣṇu figure of the early mediaeval period originally found in Chaitanpur (Burdwan district, Bengal) and now in the collection of the Indian Museum, Calcutta. The bhoga varieties are the most numerous ones, and the reason for this is obvious; the acquisition of wealth and prosperity is the desire of the majority of such worshippers. Rao observes: ‘The bhoga form is the form best fitted to have the temple thereof constructed within towns and villages; as it is conceived to be the giver of all happiness to its worshippers and has therefore to be worshipped and prayed to by all sorts of men and women belonging to all conditions of life’ (Ibid., Vol. I, Introduction, p. 20). Vīra varieties of Viṣṇuite icons have not been found by me during my close study of the principal types of numerous Viṣṇu images in the different museums of India, as well as early and mediaeval temple reliefs in north and south India.

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¹ The seated Viṣṇu from Aihole labelled Adhamavīrāsanāmūrti in pl. XXX of Rao's first volume cannot really be described as such; the god is seated in the sukhāsana pose on the coils of Ādiśeṣa, and the description given of a Vīrāsanāmūrti given in the Vaikhānasāgama does not at all tally with it.

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It will not be possible for me to notice at length the iconographic features of these varieties of images as given in the Vaikhānasāgama. Rao has done that in his book and I should like to refer my readers to it (op. cit., Vol. 1, Pt. I, pp. 80-96). The illustrations that he could give corresponded partly to the yoga (rarely) and bhoga types; I myself have described a number of two-, four- and eight-armed *sthānakamūrtis* of Viṣṇu found in various parts of Northern and Eastern India and belonging to different periods (from the early centuries of the Christian era to the mediaeval times) which conform partially to the description given in the *Bṛhatsaṃhitā* (already quoted) and other later texts.¹ I shall only select here a few from the latter group, and explain their special features with the help of a few illustrations. The images have been placed by me under the group of Dhruvaberas in the sense that they illustrate the principal (probably Para) aspect of Vāsudeva-Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa. The *Bṛhatsaṃhitā* account of such images proves that two-, four- and eight-armed images of the god were well in vogue in the sixth century A.D. or even earlier.² Relief No. 2520 in the collection of the late Pandit Radha Krishna of Mathura contains one of the earliest extant four-armed images of the god; ‘Viṣṇu holds a heavy mace and a wheel in the back right and left hands, the two normal hands being exactly like those in the Bodhisattva images, *i.e.*, the right in *abhayamudrā* and the left holding a monk’s bottle of long neck and conical bottom’.³ Notice may be taken here also of one of the four-armed *sthānakamūrtis* of Viṣṇu carved on the façade of the Chandragupta (II) cave at Udayagiri near Besnagar. The figure is very much damaged; it has the usual ornaments, its back hands are placed on the heads of the Cakrapuruṣa and Gadādevī; the broken right seems to have been in the *abhaya* pose, the front left holding a conch-shell; the mark on its breast (Pl. II, Fig. 11) is one of the early variants of the *śrīvatsa*. The Udayagiri relief very closely agrees with the *Bṛhatsaṃhitā* description. The two-armed colossal standing image of Viṣṇu found by Carlleyle at Rupavas (near Fatehpur Sikri, U.P.) is also in partial agreement with the *Br̥hatsaṃhitā* description of a Dvibhuja Viṣṇu.¹ The Badami stone figure of an eight-armed *sthānaka* Viṣṇu shows in its four right hands *cakra*, *śara*, *gadā* and *khaḍga*, and in its three left ones, *śaṅkha*, *kheṭaka* and *dhanu*, the front left hand being in the *kaṭihasta* pose. A curious bust on the top of the *kirīṭa* of the figure, seemingly of Narasimha, led Rao to call it Vaikuṇṭha. But the *Rūpamaṇḍana* describes Vaikuṇṭha as four-faced and eight-armed, the central, the right, the left and the back faces being that of a man, Narasimha, Varāha, and a woman respectively. Thus, Rao is not justified in describing the Badami relief as Vaikuṇṭha.² The eight-armed Viṣṇu figure from Conjeevaram, reproduced by H. Krishna Sastri in his *South Indian Gods and Goddesses* (p. 17, Fig. 11), as well as the Badami figure just mentioned, shows that the emblems in the eight hands fairly correspond to those enjoined by the *Br̥hatsaṃhitā*.

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¹ J.I.S.O.A., Vol. XIII, pp. 68-81. I regret that I could not illustrate them, but the pen-pictures given there are based on my first-hand study of most, if not all, of them.

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² V. S. Agrawala noticed an eight-armed fragmentary Viṣṇu image of the Kushan period; the attributes in the hands that are preserved do not conform to the *Bṛhatsaṃhitā* description (J.I.S.O.A., Vol. V, p. 124, pl. XIV, Fig. 3).

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³ Agrawala’s remark on the relief (c. 1st century A.D.) is worth noting: ‘It shows the transition from a Buddhist to a Brahmanical image’; J.I.S.O.A., Vol. V, p. 124, pl. XIV, Fig. 2.

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¹ Carlleyle wrongly described it as either Buddha or Sūrya; but his description is correct (A.S.R., Vol. VI, p. 20). The two hands of the god carry a *śaṅkha* and a *cakra*.

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² T. A. G. Rao, op. cit., Vol. I, Part I, p. 256, pl. LXXV. Banerjee's identification of this figure as Virāṭa Puruṣa (Viṣṇu in his gigantic form) is also not tenable (M.A.S.I., No. 25, p. 31, pl. XIV b).

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The three four-armed *sthānaka* Viṣṇu images of the general order, one in stone and two others in bronze, reproduced in Pl. XXI, and Pl. XXII (Figs. 1 and 3), though they hail from different regions of India, illustrate in a very striking manner the uniformity in the matter of placing the attributes or emblems in their four hands. The first image (Pl. XXI), a potstone one fully in the round, discovered in Taxila and noticed by A. D. Siddiqui (A.S.I.A.R., 1935-6, p. 35, Pl. XLa), shows its back right and left hands placed on the top of a *gadā* and a *cakra* respectively, the front right and left hands holding a *padma* and a *śaṅkha*; the ornaments are not many, the jewelled *kirīṭa* (in the shape of a turreted crown shown on the heads of city goddesses in Gandhāran art), the *hāra*, *yajñopavīta*, *vanamālā* being prominent; the *śiraścakra* (halo) with a decorated rim behind the head is well proportioned. There are some interesting iconographic traits here, which require comment: the gadā reminds one of the club held by the composite deity in the Heptalite Nicolo Seal (Pl. XI, Fig. 2), or the club held by Śiva in some copper coins of Maues (Pl. IX, Fig. 18), or in the seal of Śivarakṣita (Pl. XI, Fig. 5); the cakra is placed on a pedestal as it appears on one of the Viṣṇu figures in the Chandragupta cave façade at Udayagiri; the half-length figure of Garuḍa (or is it a female figure?) on the plain pedestal between the legs of the deity is very similar to the partially shown Yakṣa figures below Buddha frontally represented in some Mahābhiniṣkramaṇa reliefs hailing from Gandhāra; the folds of the loin-cloth, the only garment worn by the figure, remind us of the heavy folds of drapery of late Gandhāra Buddhas; there are no attendant figures by its side. The image thus contains many still persisting Gandhāran traits, and the static heaviness of the figure with its clear-cut face is not displeasing (one cannot fully agree with Siddiqui's opinion about its ‘rather crude workmanship’). A pleasing contrast to it are the two delicate bronzes shown in Pl. XXII, the first of which found at Nalanda is now in the local Museum. The god stands in the samapādasthānaka pose, has a beautiful ornamental halo behind his head, and the usual ornaments; vanamālā, sacred thread, etc. are tastefully displayed; his back hands pointing downwards hold gadā and cakra as in the Taxila sculpture, the front ones hold a lotus-bud and a conch-shell (not quite distinct in the reproduction). The pedestal is elaborate, in the left corner of which is a tiny figure with folded hands (probably Garuḍa, it may also stand for the donor). The bronze belongs to the early mediaeval period and is characterised by graceful modelling which has to some extent subdued the hieratic stiffness of such figures. This unfortunately cannot be said with regard to the second bronze Viṣṇu which hails from Rangpur (north Bengal, now in Eastern Pakistan) and is now an exhibit in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. The elaborate and effulgent prabhāvalī, the śiraścakra in the form of a lotus with flames issuing from its outer rim, the pañcaratha pedestal in three tiers, the usual attendants Śrī and Puṣṭi holding a lotus and a vīṇā respectively, and other features prove that hieratism in art has developed much; though the moulding is delicate and graceful to some extent, the hieratic stiffness is quite clear in this bronze figure of the 11th century A.D. The iconographic treatment, the manner of the disposition of the emblems, the decorations and the positions of the hands also show a considerable development.

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The first two of the Viṣṇu images just noticed do not appear to be in any way connected with the Vaikhānāsāgama classification discussed above. They are portable ones, and thus cannot be really described as Dhruvaberas. But they can be presumed to illustrate the Para aspect of the god, though, as we shall show later, the particular order of placing the emblems in the four hands would also connect them with the Sub-Vyūha, Trivikrama. The Rangpur bronze image follows to a great extent the Hayaśīrṣa Pañcarātra and other texts¹ describing caturbhuja sthānaka Viṣṇu, but it can also with some justification be dubbed as Adhama Bhogasthānakamūrti, though not a Dhruvabera in the proper sense of the term. The 12th century A.D. stone image of four-armed standing Viṣṇu hailing from Sarisadaha, 24 Pergannas, Bengal (now exhibit No. 2592 in the Indian Museum) seems to stand for a Yogasthānakamūrti of Viṣṇu and has other interesting traits. The god is shown standing on a navaratha pedestal, back hands resting on the Gadādevī and Cakrapuruṣa, his front right hand holds a lotus-bud, and the front left, a conch-shell. But what is of unique interest here is that in the extreme corners of the relief composition are shown two other Āyudhas personified, Śaṅkhapuruṣa with his right hand in the vyākhyāna pose and his left hand holding a lotus with a long stalk on whose pericarp is placed a tiny conch-shell, and the Padmapuruṣa with his right hand in abhayamudrā and his left hand holding a long-stalk lotus. These two Āyudhapuruṣas, very unusual in such compositions, replace the divine consorts (Śrī and Puṣṭi); this feature and the tiny ascetic-like figure of the donor on the extreme left corner of the pedestal leave little doubt that the image, inspite of its profuse ornaments, stands for the Yoga-sthānakamūrti of Viṣṇu. The unique Abhicārikasthānakamūrti of Viṣṇu found at Chaitanpur (Burdwan), already referred to by me, may now be described. The central deity is almost fully in the round, its head and shoulders are encircled by a halo and its right and left hands are placed on the heads of Gadādevī and Cakra-puruṣa; its front right and left hands hold a lotus-bud and a conch-shell. The figure is very sparsely ornamented, a curious string of amulets round the neck replacing the usual hāra and vanamālā; the loin-cloth devoid of any artistic arrangement is treated in a very uncouth manner; the elongated and drawn face, the big protruding eyes, the muscles and bones shown prominently and the partially emaciated belly—all these features correspond to a great extent to the Vaikhānāsāgama description of the Abhicārikasthānakamūrti of Viṣṇu. It is one of the most unique types so far discovered, and R. P. Chanda's description of it as an inferior specimen of the Gupta period requires comment and modification. The black basalt image is of c. 7th century A.D. (Pl. XXVIII, Fig. 2).¹

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¹ For a short but critical study of such texts, cf. J.I.S.O.A., Vol. XIII, pp. 74-6; for some extant images more or less corresponding to these descriptions, see ibid., pp. 78-81.

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¹ J.I.S.O.A., Vol. VIII, pp. 159-61 and plate.

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The extant seated (āsana) varieties of Viṣṇu images are much less numerous. They can be subdivided into several groups (other than yoga, bhoga, etc.), according as they are depicted seated on the coils of Ādiśeṣa in the lalitāsana pose, or on the shoulders of Garuḍa in different ways (sometimes alone, or at other times along with his consort Lakṣmī), or again in some form of yogāsana, such as padmāsana on a viśvapadma. The relief shown in the centre of the principal architrave in the main sanctum of the Daśāvatāra temple at Deogarh (Jhansi District, Uttar Prades) belonging to the Gupta period is of the first group, and can be described as the prototype of the Ādimūrti of the Vaikhānāsāgama. The god is accompanied by two consorts, one of whom is shampooing his leg dangling down the piled-up coils of the snake; the whole composition is very graceful and shows the characteristic excellence of the Gupta art.¹ One of the earliest of the Garuḍāsana Viṣṇu images is the very unique sculpture in greyish black stone, about 6' 4" in height found near Lakshankati (Backergunge district, East Bengal). The four-armed god sits lightly in lalitāsana on the outstretched wings of his mount, Garuḍa, shown as about to soar upwards; his back right and left hands hold two lotuses by their stalks, on the pericarps of which are depicted miniature seated figures of Gaja-Lakṣmī and Sarasvatī playing on an antique-shaped harp; the front right and left hands hold a cakra (with Cakrapuruṣa inside it) and the miniature figure of Gadādevī; a tiny figure of four-armed Yogāsana Viṣṇu is shown on the kirīṭamakuṭa of the god who wears his other usual ornaments. These extremely uncommon iconographic traits characterise this well-carved image as one of the most outstanding artistic remains of ancient Bengal of the early mediaeval period.² There are other reliefs of a later period where Viṣṇu is shown seated on the back of his mount with Lakṣmī seated on his left thigh. Such a one from Basta (near Dacca) shows one leg of each of the couple resting on the back hands of Garuḍa (he is four-armed here), his front hands being in the añjali pose.³

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¹ Cunningham, A.S.R., Vol. X, pl. XXXVI.

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² N. K. Bhattasali, op. cit., p. 88, pl. XXXIV.

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³ N. K. Bhattasali, op. cit., pp. 86-7, pl. XXXII.

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Two Āsanamūrtis reproduced in Pl. XXIII (Fig. 2) and Pl. XXIV are of outstanding importance from the iconographic point of view. The first hailing from Mathura (Mathura Museum, No. 379) is the north-Indian version of Yogāsana Viṣṇu with lotus halo, usual ornaments and the miniature figures of Brahmā and Śiva on the top left and right corners of the rectangular stele (the concept of Brahmanical triad is thus present here). The back hands of the god hold gadā and cakra and the natural hands in the yoga-mudrā are placed on the lap; he sits in yogāsana pose on a jewelled seat spread over a śaṅkha shown sideways on a plain pedestal on the left and right corners of which are the donor couple and Garuḍa respectively. The lotus on the halo and the conch-shell on the pedestal along with mace and wheel in the hands of the god really make up the full quota of the divine emblems. This well-carved sculpture belongs to the 9th or the 10th century A.D. The other sculpture of about the same date from Khajuraho (Madhya Bharat) is unique from the point of view of the pose of its front left hand (already commented on earlier in this book, *supra*, p. 261); the god seems to insist on silence and tranquillity so very necessary for concentration in this characteristic manner. The god sits in *yogāsana* on a lotus of drooping petals, wears almost identical ornaments as the other figure (a beautifully displayed *vanamālā* is the extra adornment in this figure), has two female attendants (probably Śrī and Bhūmi) by his side and two garland-bearing flying Vidyādharas on the top corners of the stele; the right hands of the god are broken, the back one of which must have held a mace (its stump can still be seen), the back left holding a *cakra*. There are three figures on the pedestal, which stand for the donors and the divine mount. It is one of the finest examples of mediaeval hieratic art of Central India, and no iconographic text is known to me, which might have been used by the sculptor in this case.¹

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¹ Kramrisch was the first to draw our attention to it; *cf.* J.I.S.O.A., Vol. I, pp. 99-100, pl. XXX.

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If the Āsanamūrtis of Viṣṇu are rare in comparison with his Sthānakamūrtis, his Śayanamūrtis are rarer still in the north and east of India. This is not so in the south, for as it has been already said by me in Chapter VII that this type known there under such names as Raṅgasvāmī, Raṅganātha, etc. (really typifying the Nārāyaṇa element of the composite god) is the principal figure in many of the south Indian Vaiṣṇava shrines. I shall refer here to two well-known figures, one in terracotta and the other in stone, which illustrate the north Indian type of Śeṣaśayanamūrti. The terracotta plaque, originally decorating the Bhitargaon (Kanpur, U.P.) brick temple of c. 5th century A.D. and now an exhibit in the Indian Museum, summarily depicts the motif in this manner: The god is shown resting half recumbent on the coils of Ādiśeṣa whose hoods are spread over his head; a lotus issues out of his navel (one of his names is Padmanābha) on whose blossom sits Brahmā (known also as Padmayoni); near the legs of the god are shown the demons Madhu and Kaiṭabha in a fighting posture. The figure is a striking example of the potters' art in Northern India of the Gupta period. The Deogarh stone relief (Pl. XXII, Fig. 2) of c. 6th century A.D. illustrates the theme in a much more elaborate manner. The whole composition is divided, as it were, in three parallel sections, in the central one of which is shown the four-armed god gracefully recumbent on the coils of the snake, its many hoods serving as his canopy, Lakṣmī massaging his legs, one male and one female figure (probably Gadādevi and Cakrapuruṣa) standing behind her; the centre of the top section is occupied by Brahmā seated on a lotus the stalk of which issues from the body of Nārāyaṇa, and he is flanked on either side by Hara-Pārvatī on bull and Indra and Kārttikeya on their respective mounts (all these figures as well as a Vidyādhara on the extreme right corner, except Brahmā, are shown as hovering in the sky). The bottom section depicts the fight between the two demons and four attendants (one of them is a female) of the god (some of them may represent the personified Āyudhas). Vincent Smith's suggestion about the central figure being an Indian copy of the Greek sculpture Endymion (a copy of which is in the Stockholm Museum) has already been commented on by me (supra, pp. 276-77). There can be no two opinions about the grace and beauty of the entire composition which testifies to the masterly skill of the Gupta artist. This elaborate relief is placed in one of the outside niches of the temple, the god in it being thus a Pārśvadevatā of the main deity (no other than the prototype of the Ādimūrti already noticed).

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