Vaikuṇṭha-Viśvarūpa Vol. I
Vaikuṇṭha-Viśvarūpa Vol. I
5. The horizontal registers at the top of the composition.
There are three friezes of miniature figures, one above the other, completely filling the upper portion of the stele (Pl. 3). These are based upon a plain horizontal ridge14, or ‘architrave’, traversing the backslab on a level with the rim of Viṣṇu’s crown. The face of Viṣṇu and his two upper side-heads (those of Kūrma and Matsya) — together with the parasol, shield, arrow hand, and axe — are superimposed upon this ridge. The god thus appears to be standing in front of a decorated gateway. Only the slight curvature at the corners of the stele suggests that the upper portion with its friezes might in part be derived from the enlarged and populated nimbus of Viśvarūpa invented at Mathura in the fifth century15; even the Kannauj Viśvarūpa inheritance is merely a distant echo in the curiously architectural design of this image at Gwalior. Its more immediate source would appear to lie in the rectangular design of temple doorways.
The top of the lowest frieze is level with the “hip” in the outline of the stele (see Pl.3). It is overlapped by the top of the axe and by the remains of the parasol on the right and left respectively, and bisected by the crown of the god. The small lotus-disk which backs the crown exactly fills the centre section of this register.
To the left of the lotus is a row of eight standing male figures (Q) with human bodies and the heads of goats (these also appear in the lower lintel of the Bhusawar Viśvarūpa at Bharatpur). They hold spears sloped upon their left shoulders, their right hands are raised in the abhayamudrā (Pl. 12). This octad of armed Goat-heads appears to represent the eight Vasus as reflexes of their leader, Naigameya Agni (chāgavaktra)16.
To the right of the lotus are eight other figures (R), among them six anthropomorphs which seem to be identical, standing in an ābhaṅga posture, facing forward, with their right hands in abhaya-mudrā and their left hands lowered to rest upon indistinct objects. In the latter alone must lie their iconographical difference, but the objects themselves cannot now be distinguished. These six are all male, with long hair drawn upward and twisted in a coil. The remaining two figures, nearest the lotus, are: a head-and-shoulders bust which is represented on a scale much larger than the other seven, and, lastly, a standing female with a jaṭā hairstyle, her right hand raised palm upward as if supporting the band above and her left holding what appears to be a waterpot. Although these figures number eight, they may constitute a Navagraha series if the large bust represents Rāhu. Conceivably the lotus-disk behind Viṣṇu’s crown, which is firmly within this register and at its centre, is to be seen as Sūrya identified with Viṣṇu, making up the ninth member of the ennead (and relating also to the goat-faced Vasus opposite as gods of light).
In the middle register17, the farthermost figure on the left side (S) is seated, cross-legged, facing forward, but all details are eroded. The corresponding figure on the right (T) is missing due to breakage. In the centre of this register is a single figure (U), standing in an ābhaṅga posture, facing forward, its left hand lowered and right hand raised as if holding a vīnā, all other features being eroded.
Between this cental figure and the seated figures at the two extremities, there appear on each side four figures (V, W) sitting on various animal vāhanas and facing the centre (Pls. 11 and 13). The last of each of these groups of four is lower than the remainder by the thickness of the base-band, as are the figures immediately above them in the third register: a device which allows for the curvature of the corners of the stele while retaining the required number of figures in the upper two friezes. All eight mounted figures and their mounts are indistinct due to their small size and erosion. Only the first on the left is to some extent clear. It has an elephant mount and is thus either Indra on Airāvata if these figures are gods, or Indrāṇī if they are the Aṣṭamatṛkās. If, as seems more likely, they are the Mother Goddesses, the central figure would be Śiva (Vīrabhadra Vīṇādhara), unusually not leading the Mothers but at their centre, as in Yoginī grouping18.
The top register19 consists of eight figures (X), all apparently identical, which sit facing forward with both hands raised to shoulder level holding indistinct objects (P1.13). Two additional figures (Y, Z) at the extremities are depressed to allow for the narrowing caused by the curve of the stele. The degree of erosion is worse in this than in the other registers and so no iconographical distinctions can be seen. In view of the raised position of their hands, however, it may be that the ten figures in this top register were intended to be counted with the two at the extremities of the middle register in a curve to represent the (dvādaśs) Āditya20 (SYXZT).
In brief, the grouping of figures in the three registers is as follows. The lowest level contains two groups of eight; the middle, two groups of four separated by a single figure in the centre and flanked by a single figure at each end; and the top level has a single group of ten and two flanking figures lower down which may be counted together as a group of twelve.
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R |
L |
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I |
1 (Z)———8(X)———1 (Y) ten of 12 Ādityas |
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II |
1 (T)—-4(W)—1(U )—4(V )—1(S ) Aṣṭamātṛkās with Śiva-and two Ādityas |
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III |
—–8(R) —– o ——- -S (Q)—– Nava-grahas and Aṣṭa-Vasus
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The lower left group of eight and the upper group of ten are groups of identical or near-identical figures; the lower right group of eight and the two groups of four in the middle level contain more individual figures.
6. Interpretation
As is the case with the majority of Viṣṇu images of the kind which I term Viśvarūpa, the textual source is not the eleventh Adhyāya of the Bhagavadgītā, which applies clearly only to the fifth-century Mathura fragments and to the ninth-century21 Nepalese version at Changu-Narayan. Neither are there any known śāstra texts which prescribe the icon in this form. A direct correspondence between iconographical content and a literary structure, such as exists between the Western Indian Viśvarūpas from Samalaji and the paṅcalakṣaṇasof a Purāṇa text is not in evidence here. Interpretation must therefore depend on internal and comparative evidence, in the sculpture itself and in other related pieces, with reference to well known scriptures which can be considered to have existed at the time this icon was produced, probably in the tenth century.
On internal evidence alone, it is apparent that the main figure was intended to represent Viṣṇu incorporating all or most of the avatāras. Four are seen as profile heads emerging from behind the face of Viṣṇu: Matsya and Kūrma above Narasiṃha and Varāha, a combination which first occurs in Viśvarūpa iconography at Deogarh in the eighth century.
Vāmana and Bhārgava (Paraśu-) Rāma are then represented by the parasol and axe held in the uppermost left and right hands. The bow and arrow, which appear next along with the (sword and) shield, refer to Dāśarathi Rāma, whose independent crowned form is placed on the right extremity of the plinth. The plough that was in the third right hand from the top would have identified the Viṣṇu figurewith Balarāma Sarikarṣaṇa. Despite the loss of three arms on the right, this remaining assemblage of attributes, signifying the incorporation of eight incarnations, is sufficient to indicate the intention behind the iconography of the main figure.
In the Western Indian iconography of seventh-century Samalaji, the incarnations were manifested laterally like branches from Viśvarūpa. From the eighth century in the North, the main Viśvarūpa iconographic tradition at first had not shown the well known incarnations apart from the first four animal forms, as at Deogarh; and then had represented them separately clustered about the axis of gods rising from Viṣṇu, as at Kannauj and subsequently throughout the North. Here at Suhania in the tenth century, possible in continuation of this centripetal tendency, the god is made to embody them.
Viṣṇu stands on the enlarged pericarp area (karṇikā) of a blossoming eight-petal lotus, which is symbolically Meru, the place of Brahman, centre and axis of the universe.
The other lotus, of six petals, placed behind his crown, is contextualised by the eight anthropomorphic Navagrahas, making it a representation of the sun and further identifying Viṣṇu as Sūrya-Narāyaṇa. As supporter of the Grahas, Viṣṇu is moreover the pole-star Dhruva, and as Lord of the Vasus he is also Indra as Vāsava. Being the axial source of Śiva as Vīṇādhara Vīrabhadra, Viṣṇu is then at the centre of the Mātṛkās and commands their escort, Śiva’s son Gaṇeśa who withstood the anger of Viṣṇu as Bhārgava Rāma, as well as Hanumān. ally of the second Rāma. Finally, in conjunction with the figures of the uppermost frieze, Viṣṇu is the chief Āditya.
The Suhania sculpture (with its approximate contemporary from Bhusawar at Bharatpur) is of particular interest because it represents one of the very last versions of Viṣṇu Viśvarūpa22 to be made before the full sculptural tradition died out23. Flanked by the symbols of Vāmana and Balarāma, the fifth and sixth incarnations; worshipped by Hanuman; accompanied by Rāma and Gaṇeśa; and displaying in his most prominent hands the bow and arrow and the axe and shield, the central devotional identity of incarnate Viṣṇu in this cosmic form is not only Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa, who is here identical with the infinite Viṣṇu, but the kṣatriya and brāhmaṇaRāmas, Dāśarathi Rāma and Bhārgava Rāma24, the sixth and seventh avatāras. In This emphasis on the incarnatory nature of the god and on the integration of the two dominent varṇas, the Suhania icon perpetuates, in the person of the god, the meaning of the external rakṣāvlī of heads enclosing the divided nimbus of the eight-century Deogarh Viśvarūpa25, in which the six-armed central figure is identified with Kṛṣṇa alone and the universe with his Goloka.
The capacity of Viśvarūpa to reconcile oppositional powers was one of the essential elements in his character in the Vedic Saṃhitās (where he paid for it with his life), in theMahābhārata (where it is the cause of his triumph), and in the Purāṇas (where both versions are recorded)26, and it is to be seen in the iconography of his sculptures. In this, the Suhania icon is no exception, but the iconographical method of depicting it shows a continuously developing creativity, in response to religious pressures, even in the final phase27 of the sculptural tradition. What these religious pressures may have been, will be suggested below.
7. Place of origin
One of the besetting problems in Viśvarūpa research is the difficulty of tracing the original temples for whose iconographical programmes the sculpture were designed. No such sculptural context has so far been discovered for any known Viśvarūpa image with the exception of the Vaikuṇṭha at Khajuraho, which is the main sanctum icon of the Lakṣmaṇa temple.
As noted above (Section 1) the Gwalior sculpture was reported by M. B. Garde to have been brought to the Gujari Mahal from Suhania, which is modern Sihoniyam, ancient Siṃhapāṇīya in the former Tonwarghar District, now included in Morena District, Madhya Pradesh. The well known Suhania temple28, which is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India with a Monument Attendant in residence at the site, is still a place of active worship. It is a Śiva temple with a liṅga in the sanctum and a pronounced Śākta influence in the lconography, particularly at the western end of the plinth beneath the vimāna.Though many are damaged and some missing, the sculptures that remain are of excellent artistic quality, leaving one in no doubt as to the religious affiliation of the temple, and there is no reason for supposing that the Viṣṇu Viśvarūpa now in Gwalior was part of its iconography.
On an artificial mound at the outskirts of the village, however, stands a walled enclosure containing temples for the Mother Goddess (Mātājī) and Hanumān. Inside the gateway29 (made of stray architectural members) stands a square temple, now crowned by a domed superstructure, facing west; this is the Mātā kā mandir. Also within the enclosure and equally bereft of a śikhara, there stands adjacent to it on the south a second square temple of similar size, facing east, with a Hanumān shrine built into it south wall.
The ground plans of the two adjacent temples appear to have been greatly enlarged by reinforcement from the original, the vimānawalls and roofs in both cases having been almost totally rebuilt or built-over. The rear (east) wall of the Mātā temple seems to have been only partly retained, as is a short section of the north wall which is preserved in a pillared recess in the depths of the later construction. These no doubt original walls consists of massive monolithic slabs shallowly carved with architectural shrines in groups of three, interrupted by square pilasters with foliate patterning on the shaft between stylised pot-and-foliage bases and capitals. Above them runs a heavy square cornice carved with square-pointed lotus designs, defined by excised squares against a running set of horizontally stepped parallel lines, developed from the varaṇḍikā mouldings of Gupta-period temples. The high base mouldings are made of long plain sabs with occasional rectangular frames containing a diamond shaped lotus design and triangular half-lotuses.
Within the small relief shrines on the older north wall section are carved Such figures as Vāmana and Kṛṣṇa Govardhanadhara; whereas on the east wall, which I take to be partly reconstructed from sections of a somewhat later Sūrya temple (the broken lintel lies abandoned behind the Viṣṇu shrine), the sun god occupies the central shrine in both groups of three, flanked apparently by aspects of Śiva, now with apsarases in the intervening spaces.
The confusion is partly resolved by the doorway of this shrine, which has a large Viṣṇu on Garuḍa at the centre of the lintel; this and the great preponderance of Vaiṣṇava fragments both within and outside the compound suggest that a Viṣṇu or Sūrya-Nārāyaṇa cult has always been dominant on the mound and that the earlier north wall sections of the Mata ka mandir probably represent one of the original shrines.
Surprisingly little evidence of fallen āmalaka stones was found at the site, and none large enough to have crowned a high tower, which further suggests that the temple may have belonged to the flat-roofed class of shrine which existed side by side with northern śikhara types throughout the region. Such small shrines were built largely of upright slabs and clearly either fell or were dismantled with ease, which could in part explain the architectural muddle of the Mātā temple. Stylistically the sculpture on the preserved stretches of wall appears to be regional work several centuries earlier than the Kakanvatī-maṭha, which represents early eleventh-century architecture dictated by the taste of a Candella-contemporary dynasty ruling from Gwalior.
At the extremities of the lintel on the doorframe of the Viṣṇu shrine, Brahmā and Viṣṇu are carved. They are nimbate and seated on pedestals which form plain capitals for the jambs. Between these corner figures and the central Viṣṇu on Garuḍa runs a Navagraha frieze consisting of eight standing figures and the Rāhu bust. Above this, a higher frieze represents a group of flying crown-bearers and musicians. The jambs are divided vertically and horizontally into three, the centre and outer panels containing mithunas;at the base appear Nāgas and the river goddesses with attendants. A lotus is represented at the middle of the threshold, flanked by fighting elephants and lions.
The Śiva shrine doorway, slightly later in conception and style, has Śiva on the bull at the centre of the lintel beneath two flying garland and crown bearers (similar to those which previously appeared above Viṣṇu On the earlier doorframe), with Brahmā and Viṣṇu at the ends seated within miniature temples having low śikharas and large āmalakas.The Navagrahas again form a connecting frieze (in a different sequence, possibly related to the date of building) but above them, between the crown bearers and the temple towers, sit the eight goat-headed Vasus. Single dancing figures appear in the three panels on each jamb, flanked by leogryphs. At the base, each river goddess stands between pillars in her own shrine with Nāgas beside the entrance and attendants to either side. The centre of the threshold is again by a lotus flanked on both sides by a lion-and-elephant combat.
Insofar as it possible to reconstruct an original layout, the most recent configuration on the Suhania mound seems therefore to have consisted of an east-facing Śiva Sharine — possibly built over the site of a Sūrya temple in the tenth century and clearly representing the introduction of Śaivism, which was to culminate in the erection of the Kakanvatī-maṭha — beside an earlier west-facing Viṣṇu one. Though it cannot be proved, it is tempting to think that the Gwalior Viśvarūpa was made for the older, west-facing Viṣṇu shrine.
A combination of features from both doorways could have provided the model for the remarkable populated framework of that image. Indeed, there is scarcely another credible source for it. Though differently conceived, the model for the surround of the Candella Viśvarūpa in the Lakṣmaṇa temple at Khajuraho is also architectural, and indirect influence is to be expected, the Kacchavāhas being mainly feudatory to the Candella.
The modifications to the Suhania doorways in the framework of the Kacchavāha Viśvarūpa now at Gwalior are chiefly two, consisting firstly of the depopulation of the jambs, which basically become supports for the arms and hand-held attributes of the multiple god, but also the place of his secondary devotees Hanumān and Gaṇeśa, as identificatory doorway figures; and secondly the curvature at the top, resulting in an arching representation of the twelve Adityas and the displacement of the lower figures at the extremities. Even the threshold lotus has been preserved on the base, rooted in the Earth Goddess and flanked by aquatic Nāgas, as the support of Viṣṇu. The river goddesses and dvārapālasare transformed into Rāma, Sītā and the āyudhapuruṣaṣ.Viṣṇu seems to fold the temple redefining it.
In brief, this Viśvarūpa image appears to have been created by the builders of the Śiva shrine, itself a forerunner of the much greater Kakanvati-matha later erected two miles away, to honour the older Viṣṇu cult which originally dominated the mound. In combining in its design elements from the doorways both of the already existing Viṣṇu shrine and of the Śiva shrine which they erected beside it, and by integrating Gaṇeśa with the iconography of Viṣṇu, the sculptors perhaps sought to reconcile the two cults in this image of Viśvarūpa, whose mythological ambivalence and ability to combine opposed powers would have been well known.
In its conception and design, the Gwalior Viśvarūpa, contemporary with the 10th-century Śiva shrine on the Suhania mound but created for the older Viṣṇu sanctuary belonging to the place, uniquely epitomises the intimacy of the relationship betweeb iconography and architecture in the Indian tradition.
Works cited
BANERJEA, J.N. 19562. The Development of Hindu Iconography. Calcutta.
DAGENS, B. 1985-86. “Les aspets techniques de l’iconographie selon les Agama sivaltes”. Indologica Taurinensia XIII (Proceedings of the sixth World Sanskrit Conference, Philadelphia 1984), 29-41 Torino.
HARLE, J.C. 1986. The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent (The Pelican History of Art). Harmondsworth.
HOPKINS, E.W. 1915. Epic Mythology (Grundriss der indoarischen Philologie und Altertumskunde – 1II.l.b). Strasbourg and Berlin.
MAXWELL, T.S. 1973. “Transformational Aspects of Hindu Myths and Iconology: Viśvarūpa”. Art and Archaeology Research Papers 4, 59-79. London.
MAXWELL, T.S. 1975. “The Deogarh Viśvarūpa: A Structural Analysis”. Art and Archaeology Research Papers 8, 8-23. London.
MAXWELL, T.S. 1988. Viśvarūpa. New Delhi.
MAXWELL, T.S. submitted 1988. “The Viśvarūpa Sculpture in the Trilokanstha Temple at Mandi”. Contributed to the Festshcrift for Douglas Barrett. In press, London.
SHAH, P. (ed.) 1958. Viṣṇudharmottara-purāṇa — Third Khanda. Gaekwad’s, Oriental Series CXXX). Baroda.
VARMA, K.M. 1983. Myth of the so called “Tribhanja” as a “pose” or the natre and number of Bhangas, Prodder, Santiniketan 1983.
LIST OF PLATES AND CAPTIONS
Plate I:
Viśvarūpa Viṣṇu. Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh State Museum. From Suhania, M.P. Stone, 87cm x 59cm x 16cm. 10th century. General view.
Plate 2:
Viśvarūpa Viṣṇu. Gwalior. Side view of stele.
Plate 3:
Viśvarūpa Viṣṇu. Gwalior. Upper part of stele.
Plate 4:
Viśvarūpa Viṣṇu. Gwalior. Upper right attributes.
Plate 5:
Viśvarūpa Viṣṇu. Gwalior. Upper left attributes.
Plate 6:
Viśvarūpa Viṣṇu. Gwalior. Right plinth figures.
Plate 7:
Viśvarūpa Viṣṇu. Gwalior. Left plinth figures.
Plate 8:
Viśvarūpa Viṣṇu. Gwalior. Central plinth group.
Plate 9:
Viśvarūpa Viṣṇu. Gwalior. Hanumān.
Plate 10:
Viśvarūpa Viṣṇu. Gwalior. Gaṇeśa.
Plate 11:
Viśvarūpa Viṣṇu. Gwalior. Top of stele, right.
Plate 12:
Viśvarūpa Viṣṇu. Gwalior. Top of stele, left.
Plate 13:
Viśvarūpa Viṣṇu. Gwalior. Top of stele, centre.
(All photographs by the author)