The Development of Hindu Iconography c19.s6.6

c19.s6.6

Such a syncretistic tendency is very interestingly illustrated by a fairly large number of mediaeval sculptures, one or two of which have already been noticed in Chapter I of this book. The latter may again be mentioned and described, and many more of this nature may be utilised here for the purpose of emphasising this trait of Indian mind in matters of religion. The Pañcāyatana pūjā of the Smārtas has just been mentioned, and its emblem used in more modern times, described. But a Pañcāyatana Śivaliṅga, originally found in a part of Bihar and now in the collection of the Indian Museum, which is being illustrated here, characterises in a very interesting manner the religious belief of a mediaeval Śaiva of Eastern India belonging to the order of the Smārtas. It is inaccurately described in the Museum records as a Caturmukha Śivaliṅga, but it really shows the four cult deities, Gaṇapati, Viṣṇu, Pārvatī and Sūrya on the four sides of the central Śaiva emblem, all of which taken together symbolise the five Brahmanical Hindu cults (Pl. XLVI, Fig. 2; only Gaṇapati and Viṣṇu are shown in the reproduction). Several such sculptures are known to me, a comparison of which with many miniature shrines of the mediaeval period lying derelict in the river bank at Banaras will be fruitful. These tapering shrines of about 3' or 3½' in height show niches on four sides, inside which are carved Umā-Maheśvara (Umā seated on the left lap of Śiva), Viṣṇu, Sūrya and Gaṇapati. These may also be called another mode of symbolising the Pañcāyatana worship of the Smārtas. A very interesting stone plaque hailing from Kaveripakkam (Southern India) to which my attention was drawn by my friend, C. Sivaramamurti of the Archaeological Department of India, may be described and illustrated in this connection. It is of oblong size and it contains the somewhat indifferently carved figures of such Brahmanical Hindu divinities as Gaṇapati, Brahmā, Narasiṃha, Śivaliṅga (?), Viṣṇu and Lakṣmī (?), Umā-Maheśvara with Nandī below, the Śrīvatsa-Śrī symbol and Durgā-Mahiṣamardinī. The sun appears to be absent in this medley of divinities, and thus this plaque cannot be described as the cult-emblem of a Smārta practising Pañcāyatana pūjā. But there can be no doubt that whosoever might have used it for his cult rituals in mediaeval times was actuated by a spirit of liberalism in which many of the cult deities and some of their aspects (cf. the Narasiṃha aspect of Viṣṇu and the Mahiṣamardinī aspect of Durgā) along with even Brahmā were simultaneously his objects of worship (Pl. XLVII, Fig. 1).