The Development of Hindu Iconography c19.s1.13

c19.s1.13

Many of the images of Brahmā that have been just discussed are of a subsidiary character, having been used either as *Āvaraṇadevatās* or as accessory figures in the shrines of the major cult deities. His figure also appears in ‘relief compositions’ associated with Vaiṣṇavism and Śaivism, some of which have already been noted. The god is seated on a lotus, the stalk of which issues from Nārāyaṇa-Viṣṇu’s navel, in the Anantaśayana reliefs; in the Liṅgodbhavamūrtis of Śiva, Brahmā is shown first as soaring upwards along the side of a ‘columnar Śivaliṅga’, and then as standing by its side with his front hands in the *namaskāra mudrā*; in the Tripurāntakamūrti of Śiva, he is shown as the charioteer of the great god, and in Śiva’s Kalyāṇasundaramūrti, Brahmā is shown as the officiating priest in the marriage ceremony of Śiva and Umā. In the Ekapāda-Trimūrti of Śiva or its Vaiṣṇava counterpart, Śiva or Viṣṇu occupies the central position, Brahmā being invariably shown as a lateral accretion in the attitude of bowing to the central deity.