Vaikuṇṭha-Viśvarūpa Vol. I
Vaikuṇṭha-Viśvarūpa Vol. I
APPENDIX:
ICONOGRAPHICAL PROGRAMME OF THE UNDESVARA TEMPLE
BIJOLIYAM
(major images at the level of the jaṅghā)
| Maṇḍapa, north wall, west to east | |
|---|---|
| 01. | KĀRTTIKEYA mayūravāhana |
| 02. | NARASIṂHA |
| 03. | (blank) |
| 04. | YAMA pāśa, kamaṇḍalu |
| 05. | VĀYU |
| 06. | GAJĀSURASAṂHĀRA nṛttamūrti, ḍamaru |
| 07. | BRAHMĀ sthānakamūrti, Ekamūkhī, haṃsavāhana |
| 08. | // HAKANANA-NARASI@i-VziRABi // sthānakamūrti, siṃhavarāhaturaṅgāsyā. Kapāla. siṃha, vahni |
| 09. | HARIHARA sthānakamūrti, triśūla. śaṅkha |
| 10. | ARDHANĀRĪŚVARA sthānakamūrti, vṛsabhavāhana, vahni, triśūla. Padma |
| 11. | KUBERA gadā, gajavāhana |
| 12. | CANDRAŚEKHARA sthānakamūrti, triśūla, sarpa, varadamudrā, kamaṇḍalu |
| Antarāla, north wall | |
| 13. | CĀMUṆḌĀ |
| Vimāna, north bhadra | |
| 14. | VAIṢṆAVĪ āsīna, śaṅkha, padma, padma, cakra |
| Vimāna, east bhadra | |
| 15. | BRAHMĀ āsīna |
| Vimāna, south bhadra | |
| 16. | VIṢṆU āsīna, cakra, gadā |
| Antarāla, south wall | |
| 17. | CĀMUṆḌĀ āsīna |
| Maṇḍapa, south wall, east to west | |
| 18. | INDRA Vajra |
| 19. | BRAHMĀ Sruk, padma |
| 20. | VIṢṆU |
| 21. | VĀMANA pustaka, chatra |
| 22. | // BRAHMĀṆĪ // haṃsavāhana, vahni |
| 23. | (blank) |
| 24. | SŪRYA Kavaca, padma, padma |
| 25. | KUMĀRA(?) kukkuṭa, kamaṇḍalu, varadamudrā |
| 26. | BHAIRAVA Sthānakamūrti, ḍamaru, kheṭaka, khaḍga |
| 27. | (blank) |
| 28. | BHAIRAVA nṛttamūrti, kapāla, ḍamaru, khaḍga, mastaka |
| 29. | GANAPATI nṛttamūrti |
D:alphasitereports-2/Region2.VK
TSM 1989/90
DFG-Az.: Ma 1069/3-l
Kennwort: Vaikuṇṭha-Viśvarūpa
Bericht uber die Ikonographie, Chronologie und Interpretation
des archaologischen Materials
TEIL II
SKULPTUREN DES Vaikuṇṭha- UND Viśvarūpa-TYPUS
IN REGION 2
(NORWESTLICHES MADHYA PRADESH
MITNGRENZENDEN GEBIETEN IN UTTAR PRADESH)
T. S. Maxwell
MAP OF
REGION 2 (MADHYA PRADESH WITH NEIGHBOURING PARTS 0F UTTAR PRADESH):
DISTRIBUTION OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MATERIAL
| KEY: | |
|---|---|
| 28. | MATHURA (Uttar Pradesh) Government Museum |
| 29. | SUHANIA (Madhya Pradesh) Kakanvatū-matha, Mātā kā mandir, Śiva/Hanumān mandir |
| 30. | GWALIOR (Madhya Pradesh) State Museum, Gujari Mahal |
| 31. | DEOGARH (Uttar Pradesh) Varāha temple, Archaeological Survey Site Museum |
| 32. | TUMAIN (Madhya Pradesh) Temple site |
| 33. | MANWADI (Uttar Pradesh) Findspot of Viśvarūpa sculpture now in State Museum, Lucknow |
| ^ = | Architecture / iconographlcal programme 400-1200 |
D:alphasitereports-2/Em
TSM 1989/90
DFG-AZ.: Ma 1069/3-l
Kennwort: Vaikuṇṭha-Viśvarūpa
THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION
OF THE ELEMENTS
OF Viśvarūpa ICONOGRAPHY
(3rd – 6th CENTURIES):
THE EVIDENCE OF
MATHURA (REGION)
IN RELATION TO NAND AND SAMALAJI (REGION 1)
A. MATHURA and NAND
The following observations were made during a reexamination, in September and October 1989, of the Kuṣāṇa archaeological material at Mathura and Nand which represents multiple figures.
This work was undertaken to establish to what precise degree, aestheti-cally and iconographically, these sculptures were of significance to the historical development of Viśvarūpa iconography (Antrag an die DFG vom 24.4.1989, 5.5 #2.2.2) through a study of the nature of emanation in early Hindu statuary.
The following ‘Rules’ are statements of these observations, along with deductions and interpretations. They are based on the available archaeo-logical evidence, which constitutes a fairly small and damaged corpus of sculpture. The Rules are intended to be flexible and open to modification as new material is discovered.
1.
In a Kuṣāṇa-period Hindu image consisting of multiple figures, the component deities are connected to each other as emanations from a single shared source. In the representation of emanation in Kuṣāṇa statuary the following rules can be observed to operate.
1.1
Emanations always proceed from a single anthropomorphic source figure.
1.2
The emanations emerge as anthropomorphic figures from the region of the head and shoulders of the source figure.
1.3
The emanating figures are visible only from the region of the thighs, hips, or chest upward.
1.4
Whether emerging vertically or obliquely, the emanating figures always proceed upwards.
1.5
The emanating figures are either 1, 2, 3, or 5 in number.
1.6
One figure always emerges vertically from the source figure; in a composition without lateral emanations, this is the primary emanation.
1.7
A secondary emanation can only emerge above the primary emanation, forming a vertical sequence consisting of a maximum of 3 figures in total.
1.8
If there are 3 emanations, the primary and secondary emanations emerge from the source figure itself, at an angle to the vertical, and the vertical emanation becomes the tertiary emanation.
1.9
If there are 5 emanations, the vertical emanation may continue to be regarded as the tertiary emanation, and the fourth and fifth emanations will emerge beside it, at an angle to the vertical, from the source figure.
1.10
The fourth and fifth emanations may be regarded as lateral emanations of the tertiary emanation.
1.11
The emergence of more than 6 emanations from a single so figure is not known.
1.12
When an image of emanatory iconography is sculpted on a stele, all the figures appear on the front of the stele.
1.13
When an image of emanatory iconography is sculpted on a pillar, only one vertical series of 3 figures may appear on each of the 4 sides.
1.14
When an Image of emanatory iconography is a free-standing statue, only a single emanation may appear above the head of the main figure, and the. lateral emanations are contracted to appear as faces in profile on either side of the head of the source figure, which thus acquires a ‘three-headed’ appearance.
1.15
In terms of Rule 1.8, the profile heads of such a ‘three-headed’ figure are to be regarded as representing the primary and secondary emanations from the source figure, while the single vertical emanation remains the tertiary emanation.
1.16
No anatomical connexion is shown to exist between the several figures or heads of an image of emanatory iconography.
1.17
Emanatory figures are not represented emerging directly from the body of the source figure (as in Gandharan reliefs of the birth of the Buddha from the side of Maya); they emerge on a plane located behindthe head and/or shoulders of the main figure.
1.18
The unifying factor in images of emanatory iconography is therefore not anatomical multiplicity but a geometrical symmetry of form.
1.19
The unifying symmetry is achieved by disposing the emanatory figures at an angle to the vertical with the base near the axis (in images having 3 emanations), or in rising curves (in images having 3 or 5 emanations), or both (in images having 5 emana-tions).
1.20
These radial or curving dispositions of the emanatory figures presuppose the conception of one or more imaginary circles behind the head and shoulders of the source figure, of which the dispositions of the emanating figures are radii or arcs.
1.21
The iconographical design element to which the imaginary circles, the radial and circular organisation of the emanatory figures, and their positioning behind the source figure at the level of the head and shoulders, conforms, is the nimbus, which in other types of image is represented as a disk behind the head (śiraś-cakra).
1.22
The emanatory figures are therefore conceived as appearing within, or as constituting elements of, the nimbus of the source figure.
1.23
The emanatory figures are therefore intended to be seen as personifications of elements of the divine light or effulgence (prabhā)believed to be radiated, or emanated, by deities, and conceived as a circle (maṇḍala).
1.24
Compositionally, the emanatory figures are components of a cakra or maṇḍala.
1.25
Conceptually, though an individual emanatory figure may not be provided with a nimbus, it is a divinity, consisting of light.
1.26
Iconographically, the emanatory figures are manifested aspects of the source figure (although cult-historically they may represent distinct and separate deities integrated with the source figure).
1.27
The source figure shows no sign of being physically involved in, or of being depleted by, the generation of the emanatory figures; the nimbus is an innate attribute of the divine nature of the source figure, and the emanatory figures are likewise the innate attributes of its divine nature.
1.28
Hand-held attributes are specific emblems pertaining to the individual identity of each figure and they cannot be multiplied without altering the primary identity of the figure concerned; but emanations, as secondary attributes of the source figure, may be multiplied.
1.29
Emanatory figures represent extensions of the divine nature of the source figure beyond that which can be symbolised by its basic iconographic form.
B. MATHURA (3rd – 4th centuries)
2.
The emanatory iconography created in the Kuṣāṇa period at Mathura was developed into images of mixed iconography, having both emanatory figures and multiple heads; this metamorphosis implies no metathesis.
2.1
Concurrently with the production of icons of exclusively emanatory iconography, evolutionary forms appear in which (a) the vertical emanation is retained behind the head of the source figure, and (b) the flanking pair of emanatory figures is contracted to appear as profile faces on either side of the head of the source figure, either angled at 45 degrees or right-angles to it, but in both cases still on a plane behind the central head (Rule 1.17).
2.2
Icons of mixed emanatory and ‘multi-headed’ iconography appear both in relief on steles and as free-standing statues; free-standing statues of multiple iconography can appear only in this mixed form (Rule 1.14).
2.3
In icons of mixed emanatory and ‘multi-headed’ iconography, the depiction of the plain circular nimbus is reserved for the vertically emanating tertiary figure.
2.4
In icons of mixed emanatory and ‘multi-headed’ iconography, the profile faces continue to represent the primary and secondary emanations of the source figure (Rule 1.15) but these are now regarded as part of the essential form, or even of the anatomy, of the source figure, as in Kuṣāṇa-period images of caturmukha Brahmā.
2.5
The identity of the retained vertical emanatory figure in Kuṣāṇa-period images of Brahmā is uncertain (theory: Maxwell, Viśvarūpa, Oxford/New Delhi 1988:88); in Brahmā iconography of the subse-quent Gupta period it was to be eliminated; it was to be retained, with various identities, only in Viśvarūpa iconography, as the primary emanation from a multiheaded source figure.
C. MATHURA (5th century)
3.
Images of Proto-‘Vaikuṇṭha’ represent the only development of the ancient Kuṣāṇa multiheaded iconography into post-Kuṣāṇa Hindu sculpture at Mathura; the Proto-Viśvarūpa of Mathura is essentially a post-Kuṣāṇa creation, not a classical metamorphosis of Kuṣāṇa emanation iconography.
3.1
The Kuṣāṇa-period icons of mixed emanatory and ‘multi-headed’ iconography, with the vertical emanation eliminated, provide the compositional and aesthetic source of the ‘3-headed’ images of Viṣṇu with the side-heads of lion and boar (Proto-‘Vaikuṇṭha’) in the Gupta period at Mathura; the heads of the Nṛsiṃha and Varāha avatāras replace the profile faces of Brahmā Caturmukha and Śiva Maheśa in certain Viṣṇu icons by direct metamorphosis; this is a simple combination of classical lconographic types, namely the standing Nṛsiṃha with forward Pacing head and the upward facing Bhū-Varāha, with the standing Vāsudeva-Viṣṇu. The combined icon is therefore not a classical aesthetic creation, but a metamorphosis within a perpetuated Kuṣāṇa aesthetic.
3.2
The avatāra side-faces of Proto-‘Vaikuṇṭha’, like those of the Kuṣāṇa images, emerge from behind the head and shoulders of Viṣṇu (Rule 1.17), without anatomical connexion (Rule 1.16), and appear upon the surface of the nimbus of Viṣṇu (Rule 1.22); these Gupta-period animal avatārasare therefore regarded as emanations (secondary attributes: Rules 1.26-27) of Viṣṇu manifested as elements of his nimbus.
3.3
The image of Proto-‘Vaikuṇṭha’ is expanded by enlargement of the nimbus to incorporate a large number of further figures to create the earliest known icon of Viśvarūpa.
3.4
The appearance of multiple figures located in, or constituting, the nimbus of Viśvarūpa means that they, like the Nṛsiṃha and Varāha, are regarded as emanations (Rules 1.22-24) of Viṣṇu.
3.5
The aesthetic conformation of these figures to the radial and circular components of the nimbus, created in Kuṣāṇa sculpture to yield a unifying symmetry (Rule 1.18), is however not obeyed in Gupta Viśvarūpa statuary.
3.6
The larger Mathura Viśvarūpa fragment has three emanations issuing in a rising curve from behind the left shoulder (Rule 1.19) of Viṣṇu, beneath the face of Varāha; their number, grouping and diminutive size indicates however that they are only distantly related to the Kuṣāṇa aesthetic of emanation.
3.7
Both Mathura Viśvarūpa fragments show a linear horizontal ranking of the majority of the miniature figures in the nimbus; they are emanations by virtue of their placement in the nimbus, not by virtue of conformity to the elements of the śiraś-cakra as in Kuṣāṇa iconography.
3.8
Both Mathura Viśvarūpa fragments have a series of heads (and in one case a 2-armed bust) forming the periphery of the nimbus; this could be seen as a development of the vertical sequence of emanations (Nand) applied to a curved surface, with abbreviation of the emanating figures to appear as a chain of heads; but not enough of the sculpture has survived to confirm this possible adaptation.
D. SAMALAJI (6th century)
4.
The rules of both emanatory and mixed emanatory and ‘multi-headed’ iconography, developed in the Kuṣāṇa period at Mathura. Were perpetuated and further developed into the 6th century, when they were applied for the last time to a Sculptural programme to create a second type of Viśvarūpa icon at Samalaji.
4.1
The Samalaji Viśvarūpa sculptures are the direct inheritors of Kuṣāṇa emanatory and mixed iconography; the export of Kuṣāṇa sculptures of this type southward from Mathura along the edge of the Thar Desert is indicated by the Mathuran pillar at Nand near Pushkar.
4.2
The seated source figure of Viṣṇu has two profile faces, set well back from the central face and at right angles to It (Rule 2.1), as in Mathura Kuṣāṇa icons of Brahms (Rules 2.4-5); the classical metamorphosis into animal avatāra faces (Rule 3.1) does not occur at Samalaji, where multi-headed Viṣṇu derives directly from multi-headed Brahmā.
4.3
In the Samalaji Viśvarūpas, a vertical series of 3 emanations (Rules 1.6-7, in extension of Rule 1.8) rises from behind the central crown of Viṣṇu, with the lowest, Hayagrīva (Ṛgveda), as primary emanation (Rules 2.4-5) from Viṣṇu and the two emanations emerging from behind the side-faces of Viṣṇu as the lateral emanations of Hayagrīva (Yajurveda, Sāmavedal, evolving concurrently with him; the two subsequent emanations are Brahmā and Śiva. This series of emanations (Hayagrīva and his lateral emanations, followed by Brahmā and Śiva) bisects the nimbus.
4.4
In the Samalaji Viśvarūpas, Nṛsiṃha and Varāha, which in the Mathura Gupta Proto-‘Vaikuṇṭhas’ appear as primary emanations, are shown as secondary emanations of Viṣṇu, rising obliquely from Hayagrīva, the primary emanation, in the central vertical series; this is not a development of Mathura Gupta Proto-‘Vaikuṇṭha’ or Viśvarūpa iconography, but a direct development of Mathura Kuṣāṇa emanatory iconography, applying Rule 1.8 to Hayagrīva as secondary source figure, with Brahmā as tertiary emanation.
4.5
The same rule (1.81 is applied to Brahmā, resulting in Sūrya and Candra as primary and secondary emanations, and Śiva as tertiary emanation.
4.6
In the Samalaji Viśvarūpas, the primary emanations of Viṣṇu (Hayagrīva and two flanking figures) arise from behind the heads of Viṣṇu, and are visible from the thighs upward, as in Kuṣāṇa emanatory iconography (Rule 1.3); the emanation of the remaining figures from the primary emanations is shown in two ways, neither of which derives from Kuṣāṇa iconography: as seated figures behind the head of the source figure, or as figures striding obliquely upward with the rear foot behind the shoulder of the source figure.
4.7
The remaining figures in the nimbus of the Samalaji Viśvarūpas are derived neither from Kuṣāṇa nor Gupta iconography, but are grouped in a pyramidal formation with ascending levels of 3, 2, and 1; like the ranked figures in the nimbus of the Mathura Gupta Viśvarūpas, they are emanations only by virtue of their appearing within the nimbus of Viṣṇu.
THE ORIGIN OF THE ELEMENTS
OF Viśvarūpa ICONOGRAPHY
(5th AND 6th CENTURIES):
THE EVIDENCE OF THE BHAGAVADGĪTĀ
E. The Gītā text
1.
The Bhagavadgītā contains five consecutive descriptions of the revelation of Kṛṣṇa’s cosmic form, addressed by Arjuna at 11.16, in his first description, as Viśvarūpa Viśveśvara.
2.
These descriptions are not mutually exclusive, but supplement each other: although intended to convey an overwhelming vision which could be seen by Arjuna alone and after receiving special sight, the elements of the descriptions are sufficient to form the basis of an iconographic representation.
3.
The Bhagavadgītādescriptions were not applied to the field of sculpture in the Kuṣāṇa period at Mathura; but it is clear that they were known and applied in Mathura and Samalaji to create two basic iconographies for a Viśvarūpa image, in the 5th and 6th centuries respectively.
4.
At both Mathura and Samalaji, the Viśvarūpa image was achieved largely by expressing parts of the Bhagavadgītā descriptions through the plastic conceptions of emanation and multi-headedness created earlier in Kuṣāṇa sculpture at Mathura.
5.
The elements of the Bhagavadgītādescriptions which could be expressed iconographically can be extracted from the text and categorised; this is done in the following Alphabetical Index and Thematic Index.