The Development of Hindu Iconography c3.2

c3.2

In dealing with the cult icons, I have thought it necessary to present in broad outlines the history of the origin and development of the different Brahmanical Hindu cults. I have also given brief accounts of some of the principal cult tenets, in order that groups of images illustrating them in an esoteric manner may be properly understood. The Vyantara Devatās, or the folk divinities, have been considered first, for they are the divine entities centering round whom the primitive cults of Bhakti first originated. I have included the iconographic types of Gaṇapati, Kārttikeya, Lakṣmī and Sarasvatī in this group, for I believe that these deities were originally recruited from the category of the folk gods and goddesses. True it is, that compared with the original Vedic gods like Indra, Mitra, Vāyu, Varuṇa and others, such cult deities of the epic and Purāṇic order like Viṣṇu, Sūrya, Śiva and Śakti contain a considerable amount of popular element in them; but at the same time many features and ideologies that are distinctly Vedic in character are absorbed in them. Thus, various groups of icons associated with the major Brahmanical Hindu cults have been discussed in Chapters X and XI, where their composite character has been delineated. Icons of Brahmā and the Aṣṭadikpālas, as well as those of such accessories to the major cult deities, like Garuḍa, Nandin and the Āyudhapuruṣas, have been commented on in the first part of the twelfth or the last chapter, the characteristic traits of various groups of syncretistic icons being dealt with in the second part. I can justifiably claim that I have been the first person to give a full and systematic consideration to these very interesting groups of images, only a few among which (Hari-Hara, Ardhanārīśvara, Viṣṇu-Lokeśvara and Mārttaṇḍa-Bhairava) having been incidentally noticed by previous scholars. Two sections, (a) and (d), of Appendix A of the first edition (‘Image worship and the Pāñcarātra’ and ‘Dhulicitra’) have been incorporated in Chapters X and VI of the present edition, while two new topics, ‘The Ideology behind the Hindu Images’ and ‘Some Purāṇic Deities in Vedic Texts’ have been inserted in their place as sections (c) and (d) in it. I have also changed the order of the two parts of Appendix B, giving precedence to Chapter 57 of the Bṛhatsaṃhitā, the whole of which with its English translation and notes has been incorporated. There is no change in the remaining portions of the Appendices.