Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c74.s2.4

v2.c74.s2.4

After the Saṃhitās, Sūtras also provide a valuable field of enquiry to reconstruct an early iconography. Many gods and goddesses have been described therein. After Sūtra works Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa are our very rich literary sources, which also need be studied from this angle. Both these great works throw a flood of light, not only on the early traditions of image-worship in relation to the yakṣas and gods and goddesses but also give a valuable hint at the early arcāgṛhas—the caityas, etc. Before the full-fledged temple envolved in brick and mortar with its characterstic grandeaur of superstructure, early premitive shrines in the shapes of catvaras and caityas were very much in vogue. The Mahābhārata has a further importance in this respect as it has laid down vivid descriptions of some of the popular gods of the time, like Skanda (A. P. Skandavaṁśa) from where we can reconstruct an early icnography. All these early literary sources like Saṃhitās, Sūtras and epics, unfortunately cannot be shown correlated in the monuments as the finds in our possession do not warrant this. In this direction the archaeological material like terracotta figures and figurines found in the early excavations on the sites like Mohenjodaro, Harappa, etc. do give some clue towards this reconstruction but that has still to be worked out satisfactorily before a proper evaluation is attempted.