The Development of Hindu Iconography c8.49.1

c8.49.1

It is necessary here to discuss briefly the question of the universal or regional character of the texts in relation to the images discovered in various localities of India. Gopinath Rao, while discussing this question, makes this general observation, “From the uniformity observable everywhere throughout India in the arrangement, say, of the individual figures belonging to a subject, it is clear that the rules laid down in the Āgamas and Tantras have had a very general application.”² He further remarks, “The same rules having been obeyed everywhere in the matter of making images, it is no wonder that the same results have been produced by artists belonging to all parts of the country in so far as the art is apt to be bound down by rules.” But, are the rules same everywhere, and are the results obtained by the artists of different parts of India always the same? No doubt Rao notes some difference in the images belonging to the various parts of the country; but this, according to him, is “only observable in the outline of the feature and the details of ornamentation.” The quotation, “*Deśānurūpabhūṣaṇaveśālaṅkāramūrtibhiḥ kāryā | Pratimā lakṣaṇayuktā sannihitā vṛddhidā bhavati*”, from the *Bṛhatsaṃhitā* of Varāhamihira in his support is apt. But in many cases difference lay deeper than that.