The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c9.62

v1.c9.62

"In such a tendency of mind, the works of sculpture have suffered most. No religion ever brought to light such bombast of confused and mystical ideas as that of the Brāhmin. The character of the people inclines more than that of any other race to effeminate self-absorption and brooding speculation. Thoughtfulnesss degenerates at once into distorted ideas. The dreams of their wild imagination produced a mythology, the forms of which seem to ridicule all plastic representation. The divine beings are opposed to ordinary men by the unnatural number of their heads, arms, and legs. Thus the god Rāvaṇa is represented with ten heads and twenty arms; Brahmā and Viṣṇu with four; Śiva with four or five heads—the latter sometimes, indeed, with one head, but in that case it is furnished with three eyes. Occasionally Viṣṇu appears with a bear's or lion's head and Gaṇeśa even with that of an elephant; and, lastly, there are three-headed figures, denoting nothing less than the Indian Trinity (Trimūrti), Brahmā, Śiva, and Viṣṇu.