The Development of Hindu Iconography c9.30.3

c9.30.3

The devas in the passage in question may mean these various imaginary forms. In any case, if we read the whole hymn in which it occurs, we cannot but hesitate to accept the interpretation put upon it by the above-mentioned scholars. *Śumbhatā* in the passage in *R. V.*, I. 21, 2, explained by Sāyaṇa as ‘*nānāvidhairalaṅkāraiḥ śobhitau kuruta*’, actually means ‘adorned with various praises,’ which are figuratively taken by Sāyaṇa to mean ornaments. The words *sūrmyam suṣirāmiva* in *R. V.*, VIII. 69, 12, cannot unquestionably refer to an image of Varuṇa in that particular context; Ballantyne’s rendering of this passage is based on the similar description of a perforated iron image in later works, which was heated and employed as a sort of punishment for wrong-doers who were compelled to embrace it. But that sense can hardly be applied here. No great importance can be assigned to the descriptive epithets as *suśipra*, *kapardin*, *darśata* and such others which merely emphasise the anthropomorphic conception of the deities to whom they are applied. The Ṛgvedic verse, *Catvāri śṛṅgā* etc. (IV. 58, 3), merely presents to us in a metaphorical manner the Vedic sacrifice. Yāska explains the imagery, thus, " The four horns stand for the four Vedas, three legs for the three savanas, viz., the prātaḥ-, the mādhyandina- and the tṛtīya-savana, the two heads for the iṣṭis, viz., the prāyaṇīya and the udayanīya, and the seven hands for sapta chandas or the mantras.