The Development of Hindu Iconography c8.31

c8.31

But, in most cases the original sources of these anthologies on religious art are to be sought in the numbers of Saṃhitās, Āgamas and Tantras, associated with one or other of the principal Brahmanical sects. These religious treatises, belonging to the Pāñcarātra (Vaiṣṇava) and Śaiva systems, are usually divided into four parts, technically known as pādas, each of which deals with one or other of the topics, viz., Caryā, Kriyā, Yoga and Jñāna. The first part dealt with the rules of conduct to be adopted and actions to be performed by the individual aspirant after salvation; the second one, with the varieties of ‘making’, which meant everything connected with the construction of temples and images; the third, with concentration; all three of which, if properly and systematically worked out, would lead to the attainment of true knowledge, the resultant of which would be salvation. We are here concerned with the second part, viz., kriyāpāda, which is admittedly one of the most important and voluminous sections of these sectarian treatises. Schrader rightly remarks, “ Very few Saṃhitās (Pāñcarātra) seem to have actually consisted of these four sections :...The proportion of interest shown for each of the four branches seems to be well illustrated by Padma Tantra in the edition of which the Jñānapāda occupies 45 pages, the Yogapāda 11 pages, the Kriyāpāda 215 pages and the Caryāpāda 376 pages. The practical part, Kriyā and Caryā, is the favourite subject, the rest being treated as a rule by way of introduction or digression.”¹ Thus, many of the Pāñcarātra and Śaiva Saṃhitās and Āgamas came to contain important sections dealing with elaborate rules about the construction of temples and images which were regarded as practical guides by numbers of sectarian devotees. This class of literature may conveniently be compared with portions of the Brāhmaṇa literature which were principally concerned with laying down meticulously details for the correct performance of different Vedic sacrifices. Gopinath Rao mainly drew from the Kriyāpāda of the Pāñcarātra Vaikhānāsāgama in order to explain the various characteristic features of the Vaiṣṇava images in his work, and he utilised the relevant sections of such Śaiva Āgamas as Suprabheda, Kiraṇa, Kāmika and Amśumadbheda, for throwing light on the Śaiva icons. The Hayaśīrṣa Pañcarātra, not yet critically edited, contains very elaborate details of this nature. A full and critical edition of this work will throw a flood of light on the different branches of Brahmanical Hindu Iconography.