South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses c8.s3.2

c8.s3.2

Varāha, also known as Ādivarāha, Dharanīvarāha or Bhūvarāha, is beautifully illustrated by the image in the Varāha-Perumāl cave-temple at Mahābalipuram. Here the boar-faced Vishnu is seen standing with his right foot resting on the hood of the serpent-god Sēsha. On the right thigh is seated the goddess Earth,² supported in position by the two lower arms of the god. He wears a high crown and has in his two upper hands the discus (held sideways) and the conch. As these images however have recently been covered with a thin coating of plaster and painted fantastically in variegated colours, it is not possible to say what sculptural peculiarities the original may have exhibited. Fortunately, a panel representing this same Varāha-avatār of Vishnu (fig. 15) with attendant deities, is found in another rock-cut mandapa at that village and is decidedly a true copy of the sculptures found in the shrine of the Varāha-Perumāl cave-temple. The scene depicts the primeval Boar rescuing from the depths of the ocean the goddess Earth, who had been kidnapped thither by the demon Hiranyāksha, an enemy of the gods. Sēsha, on whose wide-spread hoods the earth is generally supposed to rest, is also represented as rising from the ocean along with the Boar-god. He is folding his hands in the attitude of worship. The dēvas worshipping the god from above, the sages on the right, and Brahmā and Siva on the left indicate the joy felt by the entire universe on this occasion. This representation exactly follows the description given by Hēmādri in his *Chaturvarga-Chintāmani*. The hand with the discus is sometimes also shown as raised in the act of killing Hiranyāksha. The god may be represented as smiling after having killed Hiranyāksha and revived him by divine grace. Figures of the Man-boar in meditation or of a full Boar digging the earth in the midst of many demons, are also sometimes represented. In the pictures of Lingōdbhava (Siva) noted in the sequel, is seen the full Boar form of Vishnu digging the earth.