Elements of Hindu Iconography v1.c7.144

v1.c7.144

Thus it may be seen that the age of the Āgamas and the Tantras is mainly between the 9th and the 12th centuries of the Christian era. But the descriptions of the images as contained in them may, nevertheless, be older than this period. It is well to bear in mind that these descriptions were most probably not invented by the authors of the Āgama works under consideration, but were collected from previous authoritative sources. In proof of this, it may be mentioned that Varāhamihira, who is known to have lived in the 6th century, gives descriptions of certain images, and that his descriptions are not in any way different from those found in these later Āgama works. The rules for the making of the images must have indeed been formulated at a much earlier time, and must have long remained unwritten. Varāhamihira, in his Brihat-Saṃhitā, mentions a certain Nagnajit as the author of a treatise on Śilpa-śāstra, in which the rule is laid down that the face of an image should be fourteen aṅgulas in length. A figure with this measurement for the length of the face Varāhamihira calls a Drāviḍa figure. (According to Varāhamihira the length and breadth of a human face should be the same, that is, twelve aṅgulas).