The Development of Hindu Iconography c9.45

Language: English

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The character of the early Vedic religion, in which, as we have seen, there was no place for image-worship, gradually changed, and it will be necessary to consider whether this could find a place in its later phases. The age of the Ṛgveda was succeeded by that of the Brāhmaṇas or sacrificial treatises which were really practical guide books for the correct performance of various types of sacrifices. The Yajurveda and the Sāmaveda form a sort of connecting link between these two periods; in the latter period the ceremonious yajña came to be increasingly complicated and was left more and more in the hands of the initiated, who had to complete a difficult course of studies in order to take any important part in it. It has already been pointed out that this elaborate ritual literature nowhere makes any mention of the image proper of the gods and the utmost that can be said about it is that it refers to some symbols of a few deities (mostly sun) utilised in times of particular sacrifices. The speculative section among the Indo-Aryans, however, did not long remain satisfied with the mere performance of these sacrifices, and they tried to assign special mystical significance to them. This was mostly the work of the Vānaprasthas, i.e., those sages that had gone into the forest after completing their lives as householders, and the results of their speculations were incorporated in the Āraṇyakas, the name assigned to this kind of literature being significant.

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As this body of literature, or rather the earlier and more authoritative part of it (we should always be careful to exclude the khilas or supplements, for therein we find some materials concerning the later sectarian gods), is closely associated with the sacrifices,—it unfolds before us their meaning (arthavāda),—there is no chance of our ever finding in it any allusion to divine images and their worship. These works set a high value, however, on the performance of ascetic practices as acts of practical piety and religion, salvation being attainable by this austere asceticism. The natural sequel of these speculative efforts and ascetic practices was the age of the early authoritative Upaniṣads where the pursuit of higher knowledge—the true knowledge about the Brahman, Ātman and the Universe—was the chief desideratum. The teaching incorporated in these works was usually regarded as something secret or esoteric. Deussen has correctly shown that the word Upaniṣad means ‘sitting down at the feet of a teacher to receive secret instruction: hence a secret conversation or doctrine’;

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this element of secrecy is further emphasised by the fact that the word is used in the Upaniṣadic literature with three distinct meanings, such as, (1) Secret word (as ‘satyasya satyam’, ‘tadvanam’ or ‘tajjalān’—these words variously describing the Brahman), (2) Secret text (in the Taittirīyaka school a section often ends with the words,—‘iti upaniṣad’), and (3) Secret import (‘secret allegorical meaning of some ritual conception or practice’—e.g., Chāndogya Upaniṣad, 1. 1. 10:—‘for that which is executed with knowledge, with faith, with the Upaniṣad, i.e., the secret import of udgītha as om, that is more effective’). In such esoteric literature where the true nature of the Brahman and Ātman is being deeply cogitated, it will be futile to seek for references to concrete representations of deities; the Vedic gods no doubt make their occasional appearances there, but they do so as mere accessories either to illustrate some parable or to stand as a symbol for Brahman-Ātman (as Indra in the Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad). The anthropomorphism which was present to a certain extent in their conception had no need to be emphasised in their present environment, and as for Brahman, it would be sheer folly to even think of him in terms of other concrete objects, much less to sensibly represent him (Na sandṛśe tiṣṭhati rūpamasya, na cakṣuṣā paśyati kaścanainam; na tasya pratimā asti yasya nāma mahadyaśaḥ).

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At best, various symbols, all abstract principles such as prāṇāḥ (vital breaths), prajñā (intellect), ānanda (bliss) or ananta (eternity), etc., were utilised by the thinkers in their attempts to realise the true nature of the Brahman; even such terms with intimate associations with sacrifice as uktha and the udgītha, and the sacrificial horse were thus used in the Upaniṣads of the respective schools of the Ṛgveda, Sāmaveda and the Yajurveda.¹ The fundamentally speculative character of this literature, confined mostly to the domain of the intellectual, was certainly not conducive to the origin and growth of iconism.