The Hindu Temple v2.c11.s2.18

v2.c11.s2.18

⁴¹ In their iconographically complete 'images', the River goddesses, Gaṅgā and Yamunā, are carried by their vehicles (vāhana), the Makara, the first of all the sea-monsters and the tortoise, respectively. In the first is embodied the power of the water itself, which is fearful and benign; the latter does not refer to the water itself but to the stability at its bottom. The Vāhanas however need not be represented nor any water vessel as attribute of these Nadīdevatās while their figures are carved, as a rule, to the side of the threshold from the seventh century A.D. onwards; their images sometimes are very large and fill the length of the door jamb (Kharod, Bilaspur, C.P.; ASIAR. 1909-10, Pl. V.a.) whereas elsewhere they are assimilated to those of Tree goddesses (Vanadevatās). The iconography of the entrance is not everywhere complete; plain architectural shapes of the śākhās (Raikona Temple, Nalgonda Distr.) belong as much to relatively late temples as purely floral scrolls and lozenges only constitute the carvings of the door jambs of earlier temples (Sitteśvar Temple, Candrāvatī, Jhalawar). The widest possible latitude was given to the craftsman to draw selectively from the iconographical repertory of the entrance. River goddesses attending upon or accompanying a Nāga are represented in the Amarāvatī reliefs (Coomaraswāmy, Yakṣas, II. p. 70). A Yakṣinī Sudarśanā standing on a Makara Vāhana however is carved also in Barhut (Barua, 'Barhut', III. 74). Nāgas, dwarf shaped Gaṇas, etc. belong to the wider circle of the River goddesses when they figure on either side of the threshold. The Goddesses, as shown by the 'Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati', III. XII. 20-21, as well as by a North Indian inscription of the Vaidyanātha Temple, Baijnath (Kangra) are River goddesses (Vogel, 'Gaṅgā et Yamunā dans l'Iconographie Brahmanique', 'Études Asiatiques', 1925, pp. 387-88), whenever they are carved to the right and left of the threshold whether they are equipped with all, or most of their attributes of identification as at Kharod (Bilaspur), Bajaura (Kulu), Dah Parbatiya (Assam) or on a door frame in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, or not.