The Development of Hindu Iconography c8.19

c8.19

This great mass of literature took centuries to attain its present shape, and some idea about its vastness may be hinted by remarking that what is left to us is only a portion of what was actually composed in course of ages. These canons are really the results of the accumulated experience of generations of artists whose business was to construct these images. The Indians of ancient times possessed a common trait of character, which led them to incorporate their own independent achievements into systems and to merge their own individuality in greater corporate wholes, in order that their own experiences in particular fields of knowledge might have greater authority and sanctity to rest upon. Thus, to refer to one outstanding example in the domain of literary composition, it is a well-known fact that the whole of the present *Mahābhārata* was not composed in one period and by one particular individual. Still, as early as the sixth and seventh centuries A.D., it had attained the character of an epic system, the credit for the elaboration of which was given to a mythical sage, *viz.*, Vyāsa. True it is that some late purāṇic texts like the *Devībhāgavata* allude to not one but as many as twenty-eight Vyāsas;¹ most of these, however, are mythical figures, and it is significant to note that the work in its characteristic manner actually refers to a system or institution typified by the mythical sage Vyāsa who, under different names and as different incarnations of Viṣṇu in 28 successive *dvāpara* ages, was responsible for the composition of the Vedas, *Mahābhārata*, the Purāṇas, etc. In fact, the word *vyāsa* primarily means arranger or compiler, and in a secondary sense it means explainer or expounder. Similarly, as regards the iconographic and iconometric texts, it must be observed that attempts were made to systematise this floating mass of canons which were the direct outcome of the activities of the image-making artists themselves and were passed off in the names of such mythical sages as some of the seven *ṛṣis*, like Bhṛgu, Atri and Vaśiṣṭha, or legendary artists like Viśvakarmā and Maya.¹ The Matsya-purāṇa refers to eighteen expounders of the Vāstuśāstras, among whom mention may be made of Vasiṣṭha, Viśvakarmā, Maya, Nagnajit, Garga and Bṛhaspati.² The Mānasāra (to be noticed later) mentions as many as 32 expounders of this subject, the list here containing additional names such as Manu, Nala, Mānasāra, Mānabodha and others; that the list is a corrupt one can be proved by the fact that in some cases there is difficulty in understanding whether the names are of persons or titles of works, while in others we find a name and its various synonyms being utilised to enlarge it. The Bṛhatsaṃhitā (LII, 1) tells us that the knowledge of the Vāstuśāstras came to be imparted through generations of artists from Brahmā, the creator (Vāstujñānamathātaḥ Kamalabhavānmuniparamparāyātam), and Utpala, while commenting on it, says that the word ‘sages’ refers to Garga and others (Kamalabhavād Brahmaṇaḥ sakāśānmunīnāṃ Gargādīnāṃ yat pāramparyeṇa yātaṃ prāptamiti). The Mānasāra further elaborates the tradition and gives a mythical account of the origin of the various kinds of artists (śilpin) in its section of Śilpilakṣaṇa. Brahmā, the creator by the grace of Śiva, is the Mahāviśvakarmā; his four faces are named Viśvabhū (the eastern), Viśvavid (the southern), Viśvastha (the northern) and Viśvasraṣṭā (the western); from the east face was born Viśvakarmā, from the south Maya, from the north face Tvaṣṭā, and from the west Manu; Viśvakarmā, Maya, Tvaṣṭā and Manu married the respective daughters of Indra, Surendra, Vaiśravaṇa and Nala and became the fathers of Sthapati (architect), Sūtragrāhī (the draughtsman-designer), Varddhaki (well-versed in the law of proportions,