Elements of Hindu Iconography v1.c2.8

v1.c2.8

The first attempt to supply this want to some extent was made by that many-sided Bengāli scholar and author, Mr. Nāgēndranāth Vāsu, in his interesting volume on the Archæological Survey of Mayūrabhañja. Some years ago the idea occurred to me that I might try to bring out a book on the subject of Hindu Iconography to supply as far as I could, the desideratum noted by Fergusson. I was originally under the impression that it could be done without pressing much into service the information contained in original Sanskrit works of authority on the subject, even of the existence of which I was not then fully aware. Soon, the bewildering variety of images that were found in relation to one and the same god convinced me that to get at the details of their mythological meaning and moral aim without the help of the Sanskrit works bearing on them was almost an impossible task. Luckily, while touring in North Travancore, I had on one occasion the good fortune to get hold of a small manuscript work entitled *Śilparatna*; and on deciphering it with considerable difficulty, I found it to be a synopsis in Malayalam verse of a bigger treatise of the same name. Another small fragmentary manuscript, which came into my hands later on, was found to be, from the colophons at the end of the chapters, an *āgama* called *Amśumadbhēdāgama*. Some years previously, I had purchased eight or nine works on *Śaivāgama*; but, owing to want of time, I had not even taken the trouble to know what they contained. About this time I began to look into them, and what a mine of wealth they revealed themselves to be! They contained chapter on chapter of minute descriptions relating to most *Śaiva* images and to some *Vaishṇava* images as well. My search for more *āgamas* and *tantras* resulted in the collection of a large number of them, which in fact belong to all the various Hindu sects. From the materials thus acquired, I began first to pick up merely the descriptions of images, as they are given in them. The *āgamas* generally deal with many other topics than simple iconography. While engaged thus, I went on improving at the same time my collection of photographs of the sculptures and castings representing the various Hindu divinities.