The Development of Hindu Iconography c8.15

c8.15

Inscriptions, too, in a remarkable manner, serve as important data for the study of iconography. Many of these not only inform us about the peculiarities of religious cults with which, as we have seen above, our subject is intimately associated, but also record the erection of shrines and construction of images of divinities to be enshrined in them. On some rare occasions, they even contain rough descriptions of the iconographic features of the deities, the erection of whose shrines is being recorded in them. The so-called Ghosundi inscription of the second century B.C. refers to the erection of a *pūjā-śilā-prākāra* round the shrines of Saṃkarṣaṇa and Vāsudeva, which presumably contained the images of these gods. Many and various are the Gupta epigraphic records which refer to the creation of shrines of such divinities as Bhavānī, Kātyāyanī, Śiva, Svāmī-Mahāsena, Viṣṇu-Śārṅgin, Buddha, Mahāvīra and others; sometimes there are passages or epithets contained in them, which give us a fairly accurate description of these gods and goddesses. Again, the seals which were impressed on the copper-plate records of rulers responsible for issuing those charters often contain the representations of various religious objects which were specially used by different sovereigns as their respective royal insignia (*mudrā*). Thus, the imperial Gupta ruler Samudragupta, who seems to have been a devout worshipper of Viṣṇu, used Garuḍa as his special *rājāṅka* (royal mark or emblem) on his charters, as we know from a passage in the Allahabad pillar inscription (*Garutmadaṅka-svaviṣayabhukti-śāsanayācanādyupāya-sevākṛta*); we know this Garuḍa-emblem being depicted on most of the gold and silver coins of the imperial Guptas. The Pāla rulers of Bengal and Magadha who were *Paramasaugatas*, i.e., devout worshippers of the Buddha, used the symbol representing the preaching of the first sermon by the Master as their royal insignia, and we very often find this characteristic scene represented in their various charters. The copper-plate grants of the Sena rulers of Bengal, on the other hand, bear in many cases the figure of the god Sadāśiva who was their patron deity and who was utilised as their royal insignia. Again, on rare occasions, the outlines of the figure of some deity can be found on the uninscribed portion of a particular copper-plate charter; thus, the copper-plate grant of Mahāsāmanta Śrīmad Dommana-Pāla, who was a local ruler of Southern Bengal, contains a very beautiful outline drawing of Nārāyaṇa-Viṣṇu riding on a chariot and his bird Garuḍa on its reverse side; the iconographic details are interesting.¹ Many and various such instances can be cited, which will prove how the extant epigraphic records furnish us with interesting and significant materials for the study of our subject.