The Development of Hindu Iconography c8.33

c8.33

Reference has already been made to the Purāṇic literature, a study of which is essential for proficiency in Brahmanical Iconography. It is not only the mythological lore contained in them which is indispensable for a thorough acquaintance with our subject, but indispensable is also the multitude of iconographic and iconometric canons found in such Purāṇas and Upapurāṇas of early and late periods as Matsya, Agni, Padma, Viṣṇudharmottara, etc. Many of these Purāṇas, though they profess generally to deal with the five principal topics of Purāṇic lore, namely, sarga, pratisarga, vaṃśa, manvantara and vaṃśānucarita, associate themselves prominently with one or other of the few principal sects and contain elaborate details about pratimālakṣaṇa (sometimes described as devatārccānukīrtana), pratiṣṭhāvidhi (the exact method of the installation of images), devagṛhanirmāṇam (construction of temples), etc. Sometimes, a very close similarity is clearly discernible between one or other of such texts and those of the same nature appearing in the relevant sections of particular Pāñcarātra Saṃhitās; this probably signifies that the former borrowed from the latter or both drew from the same source. Thus, comparison of the chapters on Bhūparigraha in connection with the Pratiṣṭhā ceremony and the other chapters on *Pātālayoga*, *Prāsādalakṣaṇam*, *Pratimālakṣaṇam*, etc., of the *Agnipurāṇa* with the similar chapters in the *Hayaśīrṣa Pañcarātra* fully shows that the compiler of this section of the *Agnipurāṇa* condensed much that was in the latter work. It must be said to his credit that he shows his indebtedness to the Pāñcarātra text by introducing his essay with these words, ‘*Hayaśīrṣaḥ pratiṣṭhārtham devānām Brahmaṇe*’ *bravīt*.’¹ In most cases, these topics are incorporated in the general body of the Purāṇas as replies to the questions of the sages put to Sūta, as most of the other topics in them are introduced. But in rare instances, the usual order is changed . . . . Thus, the *Viṣṇudharmottara*, which contains the fullest details among the Purāṇic literature not only on iconography and iconometry but also on painting and architecture, introduces them by way of questions and answers between the sage Mārkaṇḍeya and the king Vajra (a sagotra of Kṛṣṇa and a son of Aniruddha), when the latter is the interlocutor and the former, the expounder. This Upa-purāṇa, occasionally given out as a part of the *Garuḍapurāṇa* and quoted repeatedly by Alberuni as the ‘*Viṣṇudharma*,’ is a very useful work of an encyclopaedic character; Section III of it treats of the canons for the construction of temples and images and of the rules for painting, and other fine arts.