The Development of Hindu Iconography c19.s6.19

Language: English

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A miniature figure of the Dhyānī-Buddha Amitābha is placed just above the central snake-hood, and a six-armed dancing figure of Śiva is carved inside a medallion on the middle face of the pañcaratha pedestal below. The figure of dancing Śiva on its pedestal also introduces some Śaiva element in it, and the snake-hoods remind one of Balarāma; the sculpture is of about the twelfth century A.D. (Pl. XLVIII, Fig. 4). Another very interesting image of this type in the same Museum (Exhibit No. 661) originally procured from Kalandarpur in the district of Bogra, North Bengal, though similar to the above in some respects, has some differences. It belongs to the sub-variety of Viṣṇu image named Śrīdhara (according to the Agnipurāṇa and Rūpamaṇḍana), as the cakra and gadā are placed on full-blown lotuses on the back right and back left hands respectively, while the front right and front left hands hold a lotus-bud and a tiny conch-shell. The snake-hoods are absent, and there are two tiny kneeling figures on the lowermost corners of the stele, whose identity is uncertain; other iconographic features (Dhyānī-Buddha on the top and dancing Śiva on the bottom etc.) are the same as in the Surohor relief.¹ It will be interesting to compare these two sculptures with some multi-armed images, generally in stone, which have been described by R. D. Banerjee as Lokeśvara-Viṣṇu images (E.I.S.M.S., pp. 94-6, 125, Pl. XXXVIII).

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The much-mutilated twelve-armed figure originally found in Ghiyasabad in the district of Murshidabad (Bengal) and now in the collection of the Indian Museum, shows the central deity standing erect between two plantain trees with several snake-hoods (probably seven, most of them are broken) spread behind his head (broken); some of the twelve hands are gone, but those which are preserved hold stalks of lotuses, on the double-petalled flowers of which are placed tiny figures of a Garuda, a rat, a ploughshare, a conch-shell on the left, and a manuscript (?), a bull, a cup (?) etc. on the right. The figure has usual ornaments including the *vanamālā* or *vaijayantīmālā* of the Viṣṇu images; one hand on either side is placed on two attendant figures in the manner of Viṣṇu's two hands being placed on the heads of the Āyudhapuruṣas. A ten-armed figure hailing from Garui, district Burdwan (Bengal), has great affinity with the Ghiyasabad sculpture from the point of view of its iconography, but many of its details are gone. A well-preserved twelve-armed image of this type originally found at Sonarang (Dacca) and now in the collection of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishat Museum, Calcutta, has the tiny figure of Amitābha over the central hood of the snake-hood canopy, and Garuda is shown with his hands in the *añjali* pose on the right side of the *triratha* pedestal;

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the right hands that are in tact show a makara, a bird and *varadamudrā* (the others hold indistinct objects), while the left ones hold the tiny figures of a kūrma, a hastin, a Garuda, a cakra and a lāngala (the remaining left hand is broken). M. Ganguly identified this image as that of Avalokiteśvara, and remarked that this form of the Mahāyāna god was very rare, and that brief reference to such twelve-armed Lokeśvaras might be found in *Kāraṇḍavyūha*; but although he did not fail to notice some of its Viṣṇuite features, he did not understand the real character of these images.¹ The six-armed bronze figure from Sagardighi (Murshidabad, Bengal), and now in the same Calcutta Museum, appears to belong to this class of syncretistic images. It was described by Ganguly as Hṛṣīkeśa, a sub-variety of Viṣṇu, on insufficient data. The god stands under a canopy of seven three-headed Nāgas; the attributes of the image in its right hands are a staff surmounted by an elephant, a discus, the front hand being in the *varada* pose with the lotus mark on the palm, while a club, a conch-shell and a long staff surmounted by a Garuḍa are held by the left hands. The two attendant figures on the right and left are undoubtedly Padma- and Cakra-Puruṣas, for they hold lotus flower with long stalks, on which are placed a lotus bud and a discus respectively; a lotus is carved in the centre of the pedestal, a figure of Garuḍa being again carved on its left corner.

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The image can be dated in the 11th century A.D., on the basis of stylistic grounds, as well as of the palaeography of a short inscription engraved on its back.¹ The twenty-armed Viṣṇu image in the V. R. S. Museum (No. 1492) tentatively named as Viśvarūpa and described earlier in this book (Chapter X, p. 426, illustrated in Pl. XXVI, Fig. 2) evinces also these syncretistic traits. The pose of the two pot-bellied attendants of the god and a few other general characteristics appear also to emphasise the blending of Brahmanical Hindu and Mahāyāna elements. These and similar other images leave little doubt about the fact that their worshippers were making definite and conscious efforts to rise above the well-defined limits of sectarianism, while they were using them in their religious rituals.