The Development of Hindu Iconography c19.s2.1

Language: English

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The Hindu concept about the Dikpālas or Lokapālas, the guardians of the quarters or the worlds, is very old. In the well-developed Purāṇic mythology the names of the deities, and those of the major and subsidiary quarters over which they had their respective jurisdiction, are the following:—Indra is the lord of the east, Yama of the south, Varuṇa of the west and Kubera of the north; Agni, Nirṛti, Vāyu and Īśāna are the respective guardians of the south-east, south-west, north-west and north-east. We do not, however, find this stereotyping in far earlier texts, where there is a great variety in the enumeration of the protectors of the various quarters or the worlds. Early Buddhist and Jaina texts also differ from one another in their characterisation of this group of divinities. Sūrya, Candra, Vāyu, Agni, Yama, Varuṇa, Indra and Kubera, the eight great Devas of the early epic literature, are grouped in some later texts as the guardians of the four chief and four minor quarters, or simply as ‘Lokapālas’. Thus, Manu tells us that ‘a king embodies in his self all the eight Lokapālas, Soma (Candra), Agni, Arka (Sūrya), Anila (Vāyu), Indra, Vittapati (Kubera), Āpapati (Varuṇa) and Yama’.¹ The first list, which is later in point of date, differs from the second one in substituting Nirṛti and Īśāna for Sūrya and Candra in the latter.

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The number, the names and associations of these Dikpālas or Lokapālas are not always constant in the epic literature, and it appears that their regular number was at first four. It is expressly laid down in the Mahābhārata (VIII. 45. 31 f.) that ‘the gods living in the East have Agni as their leader; Yama of noble deeds guards the Pitṛs (manes) in the South; the West is guarded by Varuṇa who also guards other gods; the North is guarded by Bhagavat Soma and the priests’. Hopkins correctly observes that ‘the grouping of Agni, Yama, Varuṇa and Indra seems older than when Kubera is substituted for Agni’.² Four Lokapālas are recognised in the Rāmāyaṇa, and Indra, Yama, Varuṇa and Kubera, respectively imparting greatness, restraint, beauty and wealth to the ideal first king, are the respective guardians of the eastern, southern, western and northern quarters. A comparison may be made of the epic and Purāṇic lists of these gods with the names of the regents of the quarters as given in the later Vedic texts.

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The Gobhila Gṛhyasūtra, while describing the rites connected with the building of a house (vāstuśamana), mentions that ‘ten offerings (bali) are to be made to the regents of the ten regions (diśas)—namely, to Indra (E.), Vāyu (S.E.), Yama (S.), Pitaras (S.W.), Varuṇa (W.), Mahārāja (N.W.), Soma (N.), Mahendra (N.E.), Vāsuki (downwards), and Brahmā (upwards in the sky, i.e., throwing the bali into the air)’.¹ The Atharvaveda, however, enumerates only six quarters (four major ones, the two other ones being the ‘fixed quarter’ and the ‘upward quarter’), and associates with each particular groups of divinities as ‘regents’ and ‘wardens’ (adhipati and rakṣitā). The gods—Agni, Indra, Varuṇa, Soma, Viṣṇu and Bṛhaspati—are the respective regents of the eastern, southern, western, northern, fixed and upward quarters, while the Nāgas—Asita, Tiraścīrāji, Pṛḍāku, Svaja, Kalmāsagrīva and Śvitra—are the wardens of these quarters respectively.² The Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda (Taittirīya Saṃhitā, V. 5-10) also mentions the six quarters with their six regents and wardens, the names of which are the same as quoted from the Atharvaveda; there is, however, a little difference, Viṣṇu being substituted by Yama as the regent of the fixed quarter in this list. There is no doubt that the concept about the fixed group of four or eight Lokapālas (Dikpālas) of later Hindu mythology originated from these later Saṃhitā texts.

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In Buddhist mythology too we find a group of four divine beings associated with the four principal quarters, and the Sanskrit Buddhist texts give us a stereotyped list of four; they are Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the Gandharva king (east), Virūḍhaka, the king of the Kumbhāṇḍas (south), Virūpākṣa, the Nāga monarch (west) and Vaiśravaṇa, the Yakṣa king (north). They are the Catur-Mahārājas of some Buddhist texts, and Pāṇini seems to have had them in his mind when he referred to their bhaktas in one of his sūtras (cf. supra, p. 85). The Jaina literature refers to a group of the Dikpālas, most of whose names and associations being similar to the stereotyped list of the later Hindu mythological texts.¹