F.

The Gītā and the Mathura Viśvarūpa fragments

At Mathura, the sources of Viśvarūpa iconography are essentially two: (A) the descriptions of the vision of cosmic Kṛṣṇa contained in Bhagavadgītā10 and 11, and (B) the sculptural techniques of representing multiple and multiheaded figures in Kuṣāṇa-period Hindu statuary. Both of the surviving fragments from Mathura are explicable as plastic expressions of the main features of A through a development of the techniques evolved by B. Mathura appears to have developed the Proto-‘Vaikuṇṭha’ image and the Viśvarūpa image virtually at the same moment; it has to be asumed however that the Proto-‘Vaikuṇṭha’ icon marginally preceded the Viśvarūpa image, because the former is not a logical development from the latter, but rather an iconographical definition of Kṛṣṇa as Viṣṇu, which was then used as the central figure of the Viśvarūpa image. The primary iconographical element which was created to define Viśvarūpa was the populated nimbus1. A comparison of the archaeological fragments from Mathura with the themes of the Bhagavadgītādescriptions shows the nature of the interconnection between text and sculpture.

1.

The central figure of View

One of the Mathura Viśvarūpa fragments has the upper part of an image of Proto-‘Vaikuṇṭha’ as the central figure, having the heads of Nṛsiṃha and Varāha to the proper right and left respectively of the middle and anatomically only natural head. If the image expresses the Bhagavadgītātext, this figure must represent Kṛṣṇa as Viṣṇu (Thematic Index, Theme 2.14). The animal heads represent avatāras as emanations within the nimbus (A.1.21-23, 26-291, and the source of these emanatory descents can only be Viṣṇu in his creative phase, theologically (Para-)Vāsudeva2. The Proto-‘Vaikuṇṭha’ image therefore appropriately stands for Kṛṣṇa as Viṣṇu, source of the universe, as he is described in the Bhagavadgītā. Inthis form, clearly defined by the avatāra heads as Viṣṇu, the image was considered appropriate as the central figure of the Viśvarūpa icon at Mathura. The multiplicity of heads in itself was not the basis of Viśvarūpa iconography: the two emanating avatāras do not in any sense express the universal manifestation of faces (sarvatomukba)which Arjuna saw in his vision of Viśvarūpa, and of course the text makes no mention whatever of Nṛsiṃha and Varāha.

2.

The periphery of heads

The series of heads forming the periphery of the nimbus in the Mathura Viśvarūpa s (C.3.8) is in terms of its conception explicable as a curved adaptation of the Kuṣāṇa vertical emanation series (A. 1.7).

In terms of iconography they are aspects of Śiva-Bhairava with gaping mouths, fangs and bulging eyes.

Their positioning, at the edge of the nimbus, facing outward, indicates that they represent one of the dominant themes of the physical description of Viśvarūpa contained in the Bhagavadgītā the many surrounding faces (Thematic Index: Theme 1.3: viśvato-mukha), with their gaping fiery mouths (Thematic Index, Theme 1.1:10 references, including dīptahutāśavaktra, vaktrāṇy abhijvalanti, vadanair jvaladbhiḥ, vyattānana),cruel fangs (Thematic Index, Theme 1.2: 3 references, including daṃṣṭrakarāla), and large burning eyes (Thematic Index, Theme 1.4: 5 references, including śaśsrūryanetra, dīptaviśānetra). These are the most prominent features both of the Bhagavadgītādescriptions and of the Mathura sculptures.

These peripheral Bhairava Śiva-faces in the sculpture (not the Nṛsiṃha and Varāha faces) therefore represent the faces turned in all directions (sarvatomukha)of Kṛṣṇa Viśvarūpa himself, at the edge of his nimbus of fire and light (Thematic Index, Theme 1.9: bhāsa, tejorāśi, svatejas).

Their connexion with the head of the central figure of Kṛṣṇa as Viṣṇu is made by means of the nimbus, which is a Gupta-period employment of Kuṣāṇa emanation iconography: like the heads of the Nṛsiṃha and Varāha avatāras,which identify Kṛṣṇa as Viṣṇu (Thematic Index, Theme 2.14), these Bhairava heads are conceived as emanating from him, not as anatomically joined to him (A.1.16- 29).

The juxtaposition of peaceful forms on the surface of the nimbus with these wrathful forms around the curve of its periphery, a juxtaposition which is seen in both the Mathura Viśvarūpa fragments as a primary compositional feature, is explained and prefigured in the first stanza of Arjuna’s second description (11.36c-d):

Rakṣāṃsi bhītāni diśo dravanti, same namasyanti ca siddhasmighāḥ, “the terrified Rākṣasas rush in all directions, the hosts of Siddhas all pay you homage” (where, in planning an icon, the rākṣasa element would have been assimilated to the bhairava nature of Śiva, and the siddhaelement [mentioned by name three times in the text: Thematic Index, Theme 5.7] to the hosts of ṛṣis and devas). The separation of demonic and divine elements evident here was further developed in later Viśvarūpa iconography.

The creation of the curved and outward facing periphery of heads in the Viśvarūpa iconography created at Mathura, and their ‘negative’ character in contrast to the ‘positive’ character of the straight lines of figures within the nimbus, therefore both have their literary source in the Bhagavadgītā descriptions.

The principal conclusion to be noted from this is that, in Viśvarūpa iconography of Mathura, the heads of Nṛsiṃha and Varāh define Kṛṣṇa as Viṣṇu, while the heads of Śiva Bhairava define Viṣṇu as Viśvarūpa. The spheres of emanation are twofold, and the hosts of ṛṣis and devas are incorporated (in the graphic terms of the text, they have been eaten: 11.27) between them.

3.

The linear groups in the nimbus

Both Viśvarūpa fragments from Mathura, which represent the left and right sides of the nimbus of separate Viśvarūpa images, contain figures which, at least in part, are clearly intended to depict ṛṣis with jaṭās and, in the less complete piece, kamaṇḍalus;most also hold the right hand in the abhayamudrā. In both fragments, these figures are arranged in formal linear groupings horizontally and vertically (with no implication of emanation from each other). The groups mentioned in the Gītā text are Gandharvas, Yakṣas, Asuras, Siddhas (twice), Suras (twice), Maharṣis, Manus, and bhūtas (Thematic Index, Themes 3, 5, 6): the word used for ‘group’ is sangha (and, once, gaṇa). The iconography of the Mathura figures shows that from these groups, it was the maharṣis,and posibly the siddhas with them (mentioned together at 11.21, maharṣisiddhasaṅghāḥ),that were chiefly represented in sculptures of Viśvarūpa. as far as the archaeo-logical evidence allows one to judge. Their organisation into ranks, one above the other, was clearly intended to express the conception of their grouping into saṅghasin the textual descriptions.

The figure included in the lower rank on the larger Mathura fragment, near the periphery of the nimbus, appears to represent Yama with the yamadaṇḍa,the oblique figure with a halo is Agni, and the pair of heads below him may stand for the Aśvins. These Vedic deities are all mentioned in the Gītā text (Thematic Index, Themes 2, 3).

The inclusion of Agni as a large figure in the nimbus of the more complete fragment at Mathura suggests the blazing, fiery nature of the vision of Viśvarūpa (Thematic Index, Theme 1.10), while his positioning suggests that he has risen from the shoulder of Viṣṇu as a personification of the shoulder-flames known in northwestern Buddhist iconography.

Although the damaged nature of the evidence makes this inconclusive, it therefore appears that the earliest Viśvarūpa iconography, created at Mathura in the 5th century, concentrated mainly on the representation of group-figures from the Gītā descriptions, and from among them, unon the maharṣi-siddha groups, with the inclusion of individual Vedic gods. These seem to have appeared on both sides of the nimbus, without the division into opposed or complementary groups which appears in all subsequent Viśvarūpa iconography.

These figures were extended upon the surface of the nimbus and between the two spheres of emanation represented by the avatāra heads and the bhairava heads, as if ‘eaten’ (daśāntareṣu, lelihyase grasamānaḥ, 11.27,30) by the bhairava heads and ‘entering’ (viśanti, 11.21,28,29) the substance of transfigured Kṛṣṇa, as in the Gītā text. The Kuṣāṇa multiple-emanation iconography has been given a reverse sense for these group-figures, who are seen being not radiated, but incorporated.

G.

The Gitaand the Samalaji Viśvarūpa sculptures

At Samalaji, the sources of Viśvarūpa iconography are the same as those of the fragmentarily preserved Mathura Viśvarūpa images (the Bhagavadgītā descriptions and the emanation and multiheaded iconographies of Kuṣāṇa-period Mathura), but differently interpreted. There is no trace at Samalaji of the Proto-‘Vaikuṇṭha’ image created at Mathura, although this development occurred in the 5th century, perhaps a hundred years earlier than the appearance of the Viśvarūpa image at Samalaji.The concept of the Vaiṣṇava axis flanked by the Nṛsiṃha and Varāha avatāras does, however, reoccur in the nimbus of Samalaji Viśvarūpas, suggesting a doctrinal parallelism between Mathura and Samalaji, though without iconographical contact. The Samalaji Viśvarūpas are independent regional creations; they are not logical developments of Gupta-period iconographical constructs. The (Post-) Gupta elements in the Samalaji sculptures relate to style, not structure. The axial and ramifying constructs of Samalaji Viśvarūpa iconography derive directly from Mathuran emanation iconography in the Kuṣāṇa period.

1.

The migration of symbols

The stages by which this early emanation iconography was developed between the 3rd century in Mathura and the 6th century in Samalaji are unknown, and more research is required to establish the transitional phases.The route by which the Kuṣāṇa forms were transmitted from Mathura into northern Gujarat was almost certainly the trade route which followed the eastern edge of the Thar desert southwestwards through Bairat and Pushkar; the Kuṣāṇa-period column with vertical emanation iconography on its four sides at Nand near Pushkar (Sculpture #23) is the obvious testimony to this migration of symbols.

2.

The central figure of Viṣṇu

The central figure of the Samalaji Viśvarūpa series is a seated god with three faces which are all represented in human form. This is clearly evolved from the iconography of Brahmā, not that of Proto-‘Vaikuṇṭha’. Early Brahmā images created at Mathura in the Kuṣāṇa and Kuṣāṇa-Gupta periods show three faces of the mythologically four-headed god, plus an emanatory figure emerging from the back of the central head. This is clearly the source of the Samalaji Viśvarūpa, the conversion being marked by the triple crown of Viṣṇu and the characterisation of the emanating figure as Hayagrīva. This iconographical vision of Viṣṇu as derived from Brahmā has curious parallels in the Bhagavadgītā in which Kṛṣṇa-Viṣṇu is referred to by Arjuna as Pra-Pitāmaha (Thematic Index, Theme 2.7), and as “You the Prime Creator, more to be praised than Brahman” (garīyase brahmaṇo ‘py ādikartre,words also spoken by Arjuna, at 11.37). He is also Prajāpati (Theme 2.6). The concept of Viṣṇu as the primordial creator, of whom Brahmā is but a secondary form (as he appears in the Samalaji sculptures, above Hayagrīva), is present both in the Bhagavadgītā and in the Samalaji Viśvarūpas; given the stylistic and iconographical sophistication of these latter sculptures, it is entirely think-able that the unusual (indeed, unique) form of the main image results in part from a close reading of the Gītā text.

3.

The couch and the Nāgas

The fact that this image is seated on a bedstead (khaṭvā, paryaṅka, śayyā) above a Nāga group derives from the Puruṣa Śeṣaśāyyin concept of Viṣṇu “whose resting place is water, whose couch is the four oceans” (catuḥsamudraparyaṅkatoyanidrālaye), which had been well known since the early 5th century as far south as Mandasor, as the inscription of Satya (Haraprasad Shastri, Epigraphia Indica 12, 1913-1914, Inscription 35, pp.320- 321) clearly shows. The two Nāgas at the foot of the paryaṅkain the Samalaji sculptures can refer to the passages in the Bhagavadgītā (Thematic Index, Themes 9.2 and 9.8-10) where Kṛṣṇa specifically identifies himself with the two major serpents, Vasuki and Ananta, as the archetypes or supreme exemplars of sarpa and nāga; in the vertical chain of evolution depicted in the iconography of the sculptures, they represent the aquatic origins or boundless oceans of the creation.

4.

The figures in the nimbus

The identities of the many figures in the nimbus of the Samalaji sculptures (T. S. Maxwell, Viśvarūpa, Oxford/New Delhi 1988: pp.148, 151-155, 172-174) are drawn from the gods and heroes mentioned in the Bhagavadgītā;they include Brahmā, Śiva, the sun and moon gods, Varuṇa, Agni, Arjuna, Rāma (Thematic Index, Themes 2 and 4).

None of these individual elements of the Samalaji sculptures derive from Kuṣāṇa-period iconography at Mathura; the latter provides the framework or iconographical structure, upon which the 29 elements of the Bhagavadgītā vision are hung. The Samalaji Viśvarūpas are the product of the elements of the Gītā, the Kuṣāṇa Mathuran emanation frameworks, and the style of Gupta Mathura.