The Development of Hindu Iconography c8.27

Language: English

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The *Vāstuśāstra* or the science of architecture and allied arts is dwelt upon in the *Matsya-purāṇa* just prior to its treatment of the iconographic and iconometric canons, and the names of some expounders are similar to those of a few of the reputed authors of treatises on *Pratimālakṣaṇa* and *Citralakṣaṇa*. Thus, Varāhamihira, in Chapter 57 of his *Bṛhatsaṃhitā* (Sudhakar Dvivedi's edition), while dealing with the characteristic signs of images and their measurements, incidentally refers to a few other writers on this subject like Nagnajit and Vasiṣṭha who, as we have seen above, are included among the 18 *Vāstuśāstropadeśakas*. Nagnajit has been cited by him twice and Vasiṣṭha once and Bhaṭṭa Utpala, the commentator of the *Bṛhatsaṃhitā*, actually quotes passages from the works of these two previous writers in support of his author. This proves that, however mythical might be the nature of these names, śilpa treatises actually passed current in their names at a comparatively early period; otherwise Utpala, who flourished in the tenth century A.D., could not have quoted passages from them. The art treatise, entitled *Citralakṣaṇa* (now to be had only in its Tibetan version—its Sanskrit original not being available), which has been edited by Laufer, is ascribed to this Nagnajit; it, as has been remarked by the learned editor, is sometimes referred to as *Nagnajiccitralakṣaṇam* or simply as *Nagnavratam*.

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Nagnajit was probably also the author of a work, *Pratimālakṣaṇa* by name. While commenting on verse 15 of Chapter 57 of the *Bṛhatsaṃhitā*, the first line of which runs, "*Āsyaṃ sakeśanicayaṃ ṣoḍaśa dairghyeṇa Nagnajitproktam*," Utpala makes this interesting comment, "*Nagnajitproktam Pratimālakṣaṇe āsyaṃ mukhaṃ sakeśanicayaṃ ṣoḍaśāṅgulāni*"; or this *Pratimālakṣaṇa* might have been simply a section of his other work just mentioned. Further, there were other such works passing current in the names of such mythical sages as Kāśyapa and Agastya, or legendary artists like Viśvakarmā and Maya. Utpala quotes extensively from Kāśyapa in his commentary, while many iconographic and iconometric texts passing current in the south pass in the names of both these mythical sages. The *śilpaśāstra* ascribed to Kāśyapa is called the *Kāśyapīya*, known also as the *Aṃśumadbheda* (or rather forming a part of the *Aṃśumadbheda*).¹ Agastya is the reputed author of the work entitled *Sakalādhikāra* about which Ram Raz makes this interesting observation: "the portion of the work which has as yet come under my own observation, is exclusively on the subject of sculpture as connected with the formation of statues;

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but it is so diffuse that if we suppose the whole work to be written in a similar style it must considerably exceed the volume of *Mānasāra*, the largest at present of my collection".² A large volume of texts dealing with architecture and allied arts passing current in the name of Maya and edited by T. Ganapati Sastri in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series fully justifies the remarks made above. Many other texts like *Viśvakarmāvatāraśāstra* contain ample materials for the study of this subject, and Gopinath Rao rendered a first-rate service to all its students by partially editing relevant portions of them as appendices to his monumental work on Hindu Iconography, when many of them had not been published. Mention may be made here of many other *śilpa* works, most of which have not yet been edited, while others are known only from quotations in various known *śilpa* treatises. Acharya mentions *Sanatkumāra Vāstuśāstra*, which is known to exist in manuscripts mostly fragmentary. The author of this text owns his indebtedness to *Pūrvācāryas* like Candra, Yama, Bhṛgu, Aṅgiras, Vyāsa, Manu and others. A *Sārasvatīya-śilpaśāstra* is referred to in Aufrecht's *Catalogus Catalogorum* (Vol. I, p. 714).

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Hemādri quotes from one *Aparājita-pṛcchā* which may be the same as *Aparājita-vāstuśāstra* attributed to Viśvakarmā, one of the 18 authors mentioned above.¹ Extensive anthological works containing texts on architecture, iconography (dealing with the construction of images belonging not only to Brahmanical Hinduism but also to the rival creeds of Buddhism and Jainism), iconometry, and the allied arts of bronze-casting and painting were composed, and mention can be made of one such work, *viz.*, *Mānasāra*, referred to above, which has been already edited by P. K. Acharya. The name of another such work, though in a less comprehensive scale, can be alluded to here, and it has been edited in the Gaekwad Oriental Series; this is *Mānasollāsa*, which is itself a part of *Abhilaṣitārtha-cintāmaṇi*, a bigger anthology dealing with various topics, said to have been compiled by the Cālukya king Someśvaradeva who flourished in the 12th century A.D. King Bhoja of Dhara, who flourished a century earlier, is the reputed author of the Samarāṅgana-sūtradhara, a work mainly on architecture. Extensive collections of such and other allied texts have been edited by Ganapati Sastri in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, and they are entitled Mayamata of Mayamuni (already mentioned) and Śilparatna of Śrīkumāra which were originally written in Malayalam script.