History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s8.18

v3.c41.s8.18

We were surprised to come across an attempt to combine the two antagonistic worships of Śiva and Vishṇu made by Vijayasena of Bengal in his Deopārā inscription (E. I. p. 307). He was a Śaiva but the Vaishṇava cult was probably spreading in Bengal from Orissa and his grandson Lakshmaṇasena, as we have seen, became a Parama Vaishṇava. Vijayasena, therefore, may have thought of combining the two worships, by combining the two gods Śiva and Vishṇu in the same image and in the temple he built and properly called Pradyumneśvara, he placed an idol which was composed of Śiva and Vishṇu joined together. The description of the idol given in this inscription is as follows: "We bow to this image called Pradyumneśvara wherein both the husband of Lakshmī and the husband of the daughter of the mountain reside and play in unity in which the two goddesses standing between their lords have somehow caused an obstacle in the carving of one undifferentiated body. The decoration of the Destroyer of the world is formed by a spotted silken cloth serving as the elephant's skin and the big necklace on the chest as the big serpent, sandal-wood paste as ashes and the string of sapphires in the hand as the rosary of Rudrākshas the Garudamaṇi being the Gonasa and the string of pearls as the necklace of bones".* This description shows to our mind that the same idol looked as Śiva and Vishṇu.