History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c14.s5.16

c14.s5.16

¹ The oldest form of Gaṅgā in stone is at Jānkhat (see Plate II herein). The next one, together with that of the sister-river Yamunā we find at Bhūmarā; then those at Deogarh, described by Cunningham in A.S.R., vol. X, p. 104, Temple No. 5, where the figures are ‘canopied by a five-hooded Nāga’. They are on the lower faces of the jambs, just as at Samudra Gupta’s Viṣṇu temple at Eran. The Nāga-canopy at Deogarh is unique, nowhere repeated. Nāga is unconnected with the mythology of Gaṅgā and Yamunā. The river motifs themselves are referable to the Bhāraśiva period (see § 30) and its association with Nāga lends strong support to that view. The Nāga-Gaṅgā and the Nāga-Yamunā signify the two sacred rivers of the Nāga territory freed by them. Cf. § 36 on the conscious, political significance of the river motifs.