The Development of Hindu Iconography c19.s1.9

c19.s1.9

One of the earliest iconographic descriptions of the god is to be found in the *Bṛhatsaṃhitā* (Ch. 57, v. 41). The passage says that the four-faced god holds a ritual water-vessel (*kamaṇḍalu*) in one of his hands and is seated on a lotus (*Brahmā kamaṇḍalukaraścaturmukhaḥ paṅkajāsanasthaśca.*) In this summary description, there is no reference to the number of hands, and the attribute of one of these only is mentioned; the lotus-seat is there, but the god’s swan mount is not. In the line quoted by Utpala from Kāśyapa in the last part of his commentary on this chapter, Brahmā is described as four-faced having a staff, the hide of a black antelope and a ritual water-vessel (*Brahmā caturmukho daṇḍī kṛṣṇājinakamaṇḍalī, Bṛhatsaṃhitā*, Dvivedi’s edition, p. 785). This account seems to emphasise the character of the god as a Brahmacārin wearing a black antelope skin as his upper garment, his two hands holding a staff and a ritual water-vessel. If we compare these somewhat sketchy descriptions of a presumably earlier date with texts about Brahmā images quoted by Rao from *Aṃśumadbhedāgama, Suprabhedāgama, Śilparatna, Viṣṇupurāṇa*, and *Rūpamaṇḍana*, we can at once see the great elaboration that has taken place in the iconic representation of the god. The following are some of the additional details : his hands are invariably four in number, the attributes in them being a rosary, sruk, sruva (sacrificial implements), the Vedas etc. ; he rides on a swan or on a chariot drawn by seven swans (this is evidently adopted from the seven-horsed chariot of Sūrya) ; having Sāvitrī on his left and Sarasvatī on his right side, he wears white garments, *jaṭāmukuṭa*, jewelled ear-rings, is white in colour, etc. Yet it is curious that in none of these elaborate accounts there is an explicit reference to his face or faces being bearded, though the Ṛṣis who accompany him in a Brahmāyatana (? a Brahmā shrine) are described as bearded (*śmaśrula*, Rao, *op. cit.*, Vol. II, App. B. pp. 243-47). It is true, however, that all the later images of Brahmā have bearded faces, most of the earlier ones being shown without this trait. The evidence of the Navagraha reliefs on the Bhauma-Kara and Gaṅga shrines at Bhuvanesvara (Orissa) should be cited in this connection. The two spiritual preceptors of the Devas and Daityas, Bṛhaspati and Śukra, are shown invariably without beards in the earlier shrines of the Bahuma-Kara period there, while the same Deva- and Daitya-gurus in the later Gaṅga shrines have always been endowed with beards and moustaches (*cf. supra*, p. 444).¹