The Development of Hindu Iconography c8.7

c8.7

The study of this subject also throws some interesting sidelight on the presence of rivalry and jealousy between diverse Indian sects. In the whole history of religious developments in India, there might not have been many instances of intense hatred and violent strife between the members of rival sects as are to be found in the religious history of Europe.¹ But these sectarian animosities of the Indians found vent through the milder channel of concoction of mythological stories and construction of interesting images in illustration thereof. Thus, the story about Śiva having incarnated himself as Śarabha for the chastisement of Narasimha (an incarnatory form of Viṣṇu, itself an outcome of sectarian rivalry—Hiraṇyakaśipu, an ardent devotee of Śiva, was killed by Viṣṇu in this hybrid form, on account of his bitter denunciation and cruel persecution of his own son who was an exclusive worshipper of Hari) was illustrated by the peculiar image of Śarabha, none other than Śiva himself in the composite form of man, bird and beast, killing Narasimha with his claws. In the creation of many other images, this characteristic mode of giving vent to sectarian ill-feeling is clearly discernible. Just the opposite tendency is to be marked in the case of other icons which illustrate genuine attempts towards a reconciliation between the principal rival sects. The images of Hari-Hara, Ardhanārīśvara and such others can be distinctly shown to bear traces of this different mental approach to religious problems. In the collection of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, there are several sculptures which emphasise this peculiarity; on the four sides of roughly square Śiva-liṅgas are carved the figures of Viṣṇu, Durgā-Pārvatī, Sūrya and Gaṇapati, which four, along with the central liṅga, symbolise the cult pictures of the five principal sects, viz., Vaiṣṇava, Śākta, Saura, Gāṇapatya and Śaiva. Miniature shrines, with the representations of these chief sectarian gods carved on their different sides, mostly of early and late mediaeval period, have been discovered in various places of northern India, especially at Banaras which has been the happy home of the different Hindu sects from remote past. These emblems are evidently the objects of worship of the Smārtas who are eclectic in their religious concepts. Guided mainly by the rules laid down in the Smṛtis like those of Manu and Yājñavalkya, they worship the five cult deities (pañcopāsanā, pañcāyatana pūjā). Spirit of reconciliation and rapprochement between the different sects is present behind this sort of mental attitude in religion. A brief reference may also be made in this connection to at least one of the Brahmanical Hindu icon types where even distinct traces of Buddhist iconic motif are discernible. A very favourite mode of representing Lakulīśa in eastern India (especially Orissa) is to show him as Buddha in the great miracle of Śrāvastī. Like the latter, he is seated on a double-petalled lotus being raised up by two Nāga kings, and his hands are in the dharma-cakra mudrā. In some reliefs, even the two deer and the wheel (dharma-cakra) are carved on the pedestal. This is a sure sign of Buddhism and its art motifs being absorbed by the rival creed. Many other cases of this cult amalgam and absorption can be cited.