VIáVARÍPA

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VAIKUÛÙHA-VIáVARÍPA Vol. II

23.2 HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION AND CHRONOLOGY:

In view of the inscription that was discovered in the ruins of the Laksman temple (Archaeological Survey of India XXI: 65; name of the temple corrected in El I: 122, n.1), there appears to be no doubt that the sculpture represents VËSUDEVA in the form of multiheaded VAIKUÛÙHA.

This is a Candella interpretation of ViÀ¸u as the god of 24 forms (caturvimsati-murtayah), in which the form of Vaiku¸¶ha is made to predominate. The 24 forms, as represented in this image, are: ten avat¡ras on Frame 4, plus eight seated forms of ViÀ¸u on Frame 2, plus six other deities - Bh£dev¢, Ga¸e¿a, two S£ryas, Brahma, áiva - which are also to be understood as aspects of ViÀ¸u. In that it manifests the multiple forms of ViÀ¸u, the image could well be termed Vi¿var£pa; certain features have, in fact, been adapted from pre-Candella North Indian Vi¿var£pa iconography, such as the placing of the Earth-goddess between two N¡gas at the base of the vertical axis, the aligning of gods (in this case, two images of the Sun-god) with its upper extent, and the array of numerous divinities around this axis. Like the other multiheaded ViÀ¸u images at Khajuraho, however, it contains no reference to the Bhagavadg¢t¡, but essentially represents a greatly magnified version of the Vaiku¸¶ha image. The inscription in the ardhamandapa of the Laksman temple makes it clear that Vaiku¸¶ha, not Vi¿var£pa, was at the centre of the cult for which the temple was built.

The inscription, of Candella Dhanga, son of Candella Yasovarman (alias Lsksavarman) and dated in VE 1011 / AD 954, also insists on the Kashmir1 (or at any rate the northwestern) origin of the Vaiku¸¶ha icon-type:

"(The image of) Vaiku¸¶ha (which) the ornament of princes, the illustrious king Yasovarman, who crushed his enemies, has set up (here), - the lord of Bhota obtained it from the Kailasa, and from him Sahi, the king of Kira, received it as a token of friendship; from him afterwards Herambapala obtained it for a force of elephants and horses, and (Yasovarman himself) received it from Devapala, the lord of horses (Hayapati), the son of (Herambapala)."

(Epigraphia Indica I, F. Kielhorn, XIX.1: 'Inscriptions from Khajuraho': 134, stanza 43.)

The king of Kira is interpreted to mean the king of Kashmir, the lord of Bhota to refer to the Tibetan ruler. More probably, by Kira was meant Campa (Chamba), while Bhota may have referred loosely to Kashmir, and Kailasa of course to the high western Himalaya; thus the inscription would mean that the image was first sent from Kashmir to Chamba - a movement which incidentally is also in accordance with the earlier art-historical transmission of Vaiku¸¶ha iconography in the 9th century. From there, in Kielhorn's reconstruction, it went to Kanyakubja (Kanauj), to the late Gurjara-Prat¢h¡ra prince Devapala, for whom Kielhorn cites the date VS 1005 / AD 947-948 from the Siyadoni inscription (modern Siron Khurd, between Lalitpur and Jhansi: Kielhorn. Epigraphia Indica I: 162-179; and see DHNI I: 579; 581; 585).

The Candella king Yasovarman (Laksavarman) thus must have received the original Kashmiri image, and the story of its provenance, either from the city of Kanauj, or from those Prat¢h¡ra territories administered by his immediate overlord Devapala, in the final years of his reign, circa AD 945-950. (Even Dhanga, as late as AD 954, makes the obligatory mention of the Gurjara-Prat¢h¡ra emperor, Vinayakapala, in the last lines of the inscription, though this is the very last such acknowledgement of the Kanauj imperium by the Candellas.)

The place where Yasovarman acquired the icon may well have been in the area of Siyadoni/Siron, on the western borderlands of the Candella kingdom at that time (to the north-northwest of Lalitpur), since the remains of one of the earliest surviving stone images of Vaiku¸¶ha in the Candella style was found at Rakhetra/Thuvon, roughly 50 kilometres to the southwest of Siyadoni (see Sculpture 27 in this Report; cp. no.25). From there he most probably transferred it to his temple-centre (and presumed capital city) at Khajuraho, where the two stone versions of it were made for the Laksman temple (Sculptures 22 and 23), and thence it seems to have been taken to Kasi/Varanasi (see Sculpture 28 in this Report), probably by his son, Candella Dhanga.

There is of course no image from Northwest India (whether from Kashmir or Chamba) in the Laksman temple or elsewhere at Khajuraho today, but clearly it was there in AD 954 after Yasovarman's death, and the main image in the Laksman temple must to some extent be a copy of it in Candella style. The wording of the inscription in stanza 43 makes it clear that it was Yasovarman himself who established the god Vaiku¸¶ha at Khajuraho. Immediately, and for some time thereafter, several similarly multiheaded forms of ViÀ¸u were created there (at least seven of which are known: see Sculptures 20-26 in this Report). The first of these was the large Vaiku¸¶ha sculpture in the sanctum of the Laksman temple, and the second was a three-headed version, with an arch of nine more heads above, of the Vir¡tar£pa (Trivikrama), the cosmic form assumed by ViÀ¸u after his appearance as the dwarf V¡mana and before taking the three strides, which was positioned inside the entrance to the mah¡ma¸·apa of the same temple, on the east wall opposite the sanctum containing the Vaiku¸¶ha image (Sculpture 22). The Vir¡tar£pa, like the Vaiku¸¶ha, was given the side-heads of the Man-Lion and Boar incarnations. The poet Madhava, composer of the temple inscription, draws attention to the new iconography by opening his eulogy of Yasovarman with references, in the very first line, to these two images: Vaiku¸¶ha (yah kiripurusasimho . . . asuramukhyan . . .jaghana trin ... kapiladin .... sa vaiku¸¶hah) in the first stanza, and the three strides of Hari (devasya vikrantayah ... tisras ... hareh : line 1) in the second. The third verse refers to the unshakeability of ViÀ¸u at the churning of the ocean, and the fourth by implication compares King Yasovarman to the god. It is the association of Yasovarman with the original Vaiku¸¶ha icon that is the basis of the creation of multiheaded ViÀ¸u images at Khajuraho, not Kashmiri theological influence. The unsuitability of this copying of one iconographic form to represent different aspects of ViÀ¸u is immediately obvious (the Vir¡tar£pa of the V¡mana story has no direct connection either with NarasiÆha and Var¡ha or with the Kashmiri concept of Vaiku¸¶ha); the copying results simply from the adoption of a particular image of ViÀ¸u favoured by an illustrious king. That Vaiku¸¶ha to the Candellas was merely a name, and not a theological concept, is evident in the mythology of demon-slaying which the composer of the pra¿asti, the poet Madhava, invents to explain the three additional heads of the original Kashmiri icon: the raudra face which appears at the back of such icons he represents as the likeness of an asura (demon) whose form Vaiku¸¶ha ViÀ¸u assumed in order to destroy him. But the original Kashmiri name of the rear face of Vaiku¸¶ha, Kapila, is preserved in the inscription, confirming the northwestern origin of the icon and of the superficial lore that came with it. One would therefore be ill-advised to attempt to place Pancaratra interpretations upon the multiheaded ViÀ¸u images of Khajuraho: though the iconography of this theological system was in part adopted by the Candellas, as was the name of its chief icon (Vaiku¸¶ha), the theology itself certainly was not.

The Vaiku¸¶ha icon came to Khajuraho, by sheer historical accident, at a time when the Candellas still acknowledged the imperial glory of Kanauj (though they had little respect for the late Gurjara-Prat¢h¡ra kings who ruled there and who were nominally their overlords) but were on the point of achieving an independent kingdom; the icon came from Kanauj itself, accompanied by a Himalayan pedigree, symbolising the imperial status which they themselves sought to achieve, and which they felt to be within their grasp under kings of the calibre of Yasovarman. It was surely in this (and not in theological influence from Kashmir) that the attraction of the multiheaded ViÀ¸u image lay, as a symbol of political greatness. It is this which explains the magnification of the Candella version of Vaiku¸¶ha in the sanctum of the Laksman temple, where Dhanga made the final brief reference to the Prat¢h¡ra emperor as protector, and it explains also the appearance of Vaiku¸¶ha-like images in the northern, eastern and western borderlands of the Candella kingdom (at Kalanjara/Kalinjar, Rakhetra/ Thuvon, and Kasi/ Varanasi: see Sculptures 29, 27, 28 respectively in this Report).

23.2.1 ICONOGRAPHICAL INTERPRETATION:

It is clear from the iconography of this, one of the earliest and certainly the most resplendent of all Candella images of Vaiku¸¶ha, and from the iconography of exterior walls of its sanctum (Var¡ha-N¤siÆha-Hayagr¢va: see above, 23.1.1) that the Candella royalty and priesthood did not adopt Pancaratra theology along with the iconography of Kashmiri Vaiku¸¶ha. Such a shift in theological position would have required the settlement in Khajuraho of a Kashmiri priesthood versed in Pancaratra beliefs, mythology, and ritual performance, and of course the creation of the appropriate iconographical and architectural forms, which are not present in the Laksman temple. Instead, the Candellas either created a new mythology, or revived and elaborated an existing alternative one, which was seen as appropriate for a royal cult centred on Yasovarman. This is clear from the first line of the Laksman temple inscription, in which the three additional heads of Vaiku¸¶ha are explained as those of demons, whose forms ViÀ¸u had to assume in order to defeat them: a mythology which is not attested elsewhere in the known Sanskrit texts available in the mid-10th century. Vaiku¸¶ha was regarded as the supreme demon-slayer in the same way that King Yasovarman was regarded as the destroyer of his mortal enemies. This idea was the crux of the new Candella cult of Vaiku¸¶ha: the poetic metaphor of a man becoming a man-lion (nara-simha) in battle, or a wild boar (var¡ha) in rescuing the kingdom, or a demon (asura) in his destructiveness, was elevated to the realm of theology in this cult. The transformations of ViÀ¸u were thus regarded less as incarnations in terms of the orthodox avat¡ra-doctrine, than as specific metamorphoses undergone for the purpose of destroying demons. Once this new doctrine had been established, it became possible to substitute metamorphic identities other than those of the demons N¤siÆha, Var¡ha, and Kapila, for the additional heads of the original Vaiku¸¶ha image. That other such identities of the warring ViÀ¸u were of importance to the new cult from the date of its establishment, is clear from the lconography of the walls of the Laksman temple sanctum in which the first great icon of Vaiku¸¶ha was enshrined: these walls show ViÀ¸u as the Var¡ha and the Man-Lion (corresponding to the left and right side-heads of the Kashmiri Vaiku¸¶ha iconography), but also, on the third or northern wall, as Hayagr¢va instead of Kapila. This substitution cannot, of course, be explained in terms of Pancaratra doctrine, but only in terms of the new Candella demon- slaying mythology: Hayagr¢va was a demon whose form ViÀ¸u assumed to defeat him (EHI.I.1.260 citing the Devibhagavata). The reason for this substitution is most probably to be explained on the grounds that the Kashmiri iconography of the Vaiku¸¶ha image, and hence also the identity of Kapila as a demon-like (but not inherently demonic) form, was not understood in its own terms at Khajuraho. That this substitution of Hayagr¢va for Kapila continued to be made at Khajuraho is proved by the large four-headed ViÀ¸u image now in the site museum there (see Sculpture 24 in this Report), in which the face on the rear - the correct place for the head of Kapila in the original Kashmiri iconography - is that of a horse (haya); and in the ten-headed icon of ViÀ¸u, representing Vaiku¸¶ha bearing the identities of his ten transformations (though not of the conventional ten avat¡ras) simultaneously, on the south wall of the Citragupta temple sanctum at Khajuraho (see Sculpture 21 in this Report), the horse - head of Hayagr¢va appears among the metamorphoses of the god.

The Laksman temple image is therefore to be seen, not as the Kashmiri Vaiku¸¶ha, but as a Candella deity based on Vaiku¸¶ha iconography, and representing ViÀ¸u as the apotheosis of the concept daityari (Demon-Foe), in which Kapila was already starting to be replaced by Hayagr¢va, as the iconography of the sanctum walls suggests.

Once the iconography of the Vaiku¸¶ha figure at Khajuraho is seen to be a new Candella creation, not conforming either to Pancaratra or orthodox Veda-based texts, then it becomes equally inadvisable to attempt to explain the iconography of the four massive populated frames, which surround this image with a multitude of minor forms, in terms of those texts. In fact, no such attempt has succeeded, so that the entire iconography of this image has remained without a coherent interpretation.

There can be no doubt that this image is partly based upon the existing iconography of Vi¿var£pa as it appears in sculptures of ViÀ¸u in this cosmic form in the Gurjara-Prat¢h¡ra kingdom. As the Prat¢h¡ra were the overlords of the Candellas, and since Yasovarman acquired his original Kashmiri Vaiku¸¶ha image from Devapala, a Prat¢h¡ra prince, this influences understandable. The images of Vi¿var£pa made in the Prat¢h¡ra Capital. Kanyakubja (Kanauj), in the late 8th and early 9th centuries (almost certainly during the reign of Nagabhatta II Prat¢h¡ra, C. AD 783-833), at least some of which must still have been installed in the temples there in the mid-10^th include among many others the following features: the heads of N¤siÆha and Var¡ha on opposite sides of the face of the main icon; the Earth-Goddess between N¡gas on the plinth between the feet of ViÀ¸u, and vertical line of deities above his crown; Ga¸e¿a on the right side of the stele; and the concept of surrounding the ViÀ¸u icon with a host of minor figures. These significant details, though in modified form, all Occur also in the Laksman temple image of Vaiku¸¶ha. The animal-heads and the Earth-Goddess derive from Kashmiri iconography, and would also have been features of the original Vaiku¸¶ha image which Yasovarman acquired; but the vertically placed gods over the head of ViÀ¸u, the curious insertion of Ga¸e¿a on the right, and the notion of representing ViÀ¸u at the centre of a mass of other deities, are elements and concepts which stem directly from Vi¿var£pa iconography at Kanauj. That the Candella sculpture was not intended to depict the Prat¢h¡ra Vi¿var£pa concept, however, is clear both from the absence of the same internal logic as that which governs the Kanauj images, and from the nomenclature used in the Candella inscription in the Laksman temple.

The concept of ViÀ¸u having 24 forms (the caturvimsati-murtayah), on the other hand, was evidently known in Khajuraho, since the numerology, if not the full iconography, was applied to this image. I have shown above (see 23.2) that the number of ¡vara¸a-devat¡s is twenty-four. Eighteen of these are iconographically identifiable as ViÀ¸u, while six are iconographically other deities; non-VaiÀ¸ava deities being aspects of the one god ViÀ¸u is a concept which is at least as old as the Bhagavadg¢t¡, which forms the unifying basis of the iconographical section of the ViÀ¸u-dharmottara-pur¡¸a, and which is restated in visual terms in every Vi¿var£pa icon ever produced.

The 18 VaiÀ¸ava forms are the 10 avat¡ras plus 8 other aspects, which represent one-third of the 24-forms. (There is no basis for calling them vy£has in the Pancaratra sense; though some of them could theoretically be so identified, for the most part anachronistically on the basis of later texts such as the R£pama¸·ana, the iconography of all eight as represented in this sculpture, is not found in the Sanskrit lists.)

The remaining six non-VaiÀ¸ava forms are Bh£dev¢, Ga¸e¿a, Brahma, áiva (all inherited from the Kanauj iconography of Vi¿var£pa, and partly from Kashmir), and two aspects of S£rya.

Taken as a whole, therefore, this Laksman temple image represents a new iconographical concept, namely Vaiku¸¶ha Caturvimsatimurti.

23.2.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION:

The image represents VASUDEVA VIâÛU, God of Light integrated with the Sun-god (namo bhagavate vasudevaya is the opening and closing invocation of the inscription, coupled at the end with namah savitre), and God of Twenty-four Forms, shown as a glorification of the Kashmiri icon of VIâÛU VAIKUÛÙHA which was associated with King Yasovarman and which symbolised the imperial aspirations of the Candella dynasty.

Khajuraho, AD 954.

Nr. 23: Khajuraho

Laksman Temple, Sanktum

24. DREIKOPFIGER VIâÛU

Stein: 145 x 83 x 40

urspr. 4 Hande

Khajuraho, Archaeological Museum

24.1 DESCRIPTION:

This sculpture was evidently regarded as an image of great importance, intended to be set up in its own sanctum: the height of the ViÀ¸u figure is 116cm, only slightly smaller than that of the main Vaiku¸¶ha figure in the sanctum of the Laksman temple (126cm, originally about 130+).

The image has the Lion and Boar profiles (damaged, with karanada-muku¶a, on the proper right and left respectively) on either side of the central face of ViÀ¸u (with kir¢¶a-muku¶a), as in conventional Vaiku¸¶ha icons.

The figure stands between the pillars of a makara-t°ra¸a, leaving the rear of the image visible. On the back of the central head of ViÀ¸u is carved a stylised animal-head (Avasthi 1967: citra 63) in high relief, which has been variously interpreted as representing that of a cow or bull (Pathak 1960: 14) or of a horse (Ibid., footnote 4 by Krishna Deva; Avasthi 1967: 135). The features are, in fact, curiously anthropomorphised, with slanting eyes and eyebrows, a long thin nose, and a small mouth; it does not resemble the horse-head of Hayagr¢va in the northern sanctum niche of the Laksman temple, which is relatively naturalistic in treatment. On the other hand, the face bears no likeness whatever to the Bhairava-like krodharsi features of Kapila, whose face appears in this position on the back of Kashmiri Vaiku¸¶ha icons, and also in the same position on the Candella version from K¡¿¢ (see Sculpture 28 in this Report). Krishna Deva and Avasthi examined this face personally, and both scholars formed the opinion, despite the anthropomorphisation and certain damage, that a horse-head was intended. Since the sculpture is now permanently installed against a wall in the Khajuraho site museum and cannot be moved, one must for the time being to accept their view; in explanation of the combination of equine with human features, upon which neither scholar comments, I would suggest that this distortion could well be the result of an attempt to depict the demonic features of the asura Hayagr¢va (EHI I.1. 260; see Interpretation below).

The figure, standing in slight ¡bha´ga to the right with the weight on the right foot, was originally four-armed, but the arms are broken off below the shoulders, with the consequent loss of all attributes.

The feet of ViÀ¸u stand upon a small plinth composed of cyma recta and cyma reversa curves, as if a double-lotus had been intended but left uncarved; a plain central block connects the lower and the upper segments. Between the feet, and rising from the surface of this plinth, appear the thighs and central pearlstring of a diminutive anthropomorphic figure, the remainder of which is broken off except for the hands, which rest upon the upper surfaces of the god's feet. This therefore seems to have been an small image of BHÍ-DEVÌ, the Earth-Goddess, who in Kashmiri VaiÀ¸ava iconography is shown emerging from the pedestal and supporting the soles of the feet of the god with her hands; like so much foreign imagery, the placement of the hands, and their supporting function, has been misinterpreted - or freely adapted - by the Candella sculptor. (This detail would have been copied, inaccurately, either from a Kashmiri image such as Yasovarman's original Vaiku¸¶ha figurine, or from one of the Gurjara-Prat¢h¡ra images of Vi¿var£pa at Kanauj, which also depict the Earth-Goddess in this position.)

To either side of ViÀ¸u stand a male and female attendant, the latter holding a c¡mara. In front of them, on the corners of the central salient of the plinth, sit two female worshippers. On the first lateral step of the base to the proper right stands a small figure of BUDDHA (as an avat¡ra of ViÀ¸u), the left hand holding the end of his robe and the right raised in the abhayamudr¡, in front of a larger image of RËMA DËáARATHÌ holding an arrow against his right shoulder, with VARËHA on a pedestal above. At the end of the plinth on this side stands VËMANA, the Dwarf incarnation, holding a parasol. In the corresponding locations to the proper left appear KALKIN riding a horse in front of SA×KARâAÛA / BALARËMA, with NARASIêHA on a pedestal above, and at the end PARAáU- (BRARGAVA -) RËMA. The remaining two avat¡ras. MATSYA and KÍRMA, appear on small lateral projections to the proper right and left respectively, at the top of the frame, behind BRAHMA and áIVA who sit at the tops of the pillars of the makara-tornana. The sequence of the ten incarnations is therefore to be read from top to bottom of the composition, as in the case of the greater Vaiku¸¶ha composition in the sanctum of the Laksman temple (see Sculpture 23 in this Report). The other minor figures on the uprights are worshipping devotees and attendants.

24.2 INTERPRETATION:

The appearance of the Var¡ha and NarasiÆha incarnations among the plinth-figures makes it clear that the Lion and Boar side-heads of the main figure are not to be regarded as those of these avat¡ras, but as the heads of demons, whose forms ViÀ¸u assumed to defeat them according to the Khajuraho mythology (see Sculpture 23 in this Report); the half-man, half-horse face on the back of the image can therefore also be understood as that of a demon (Hayagr¢va), which at Khajuraho replaced the original Kapila-face of the Kashmiri Vaiku¸¶ha icon (see 23.2.1 in this Report).

The style of the sculpture, plus the fact that the image was clearly intended as a major icon serving the local Vaiku¸¶ha cult while it was still at the height of its power, indicate a date in the 11th century.

23.2.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION:

The sculpture represents a major sanctum image, intended for installation in its own temple at Khajuraho, of the Candella VIâÛU VAIKUÛÙHA, as it was understood within its royal cult at Khajuraho, with the Earth-Goddess at its feet, and surrounded by the Ten Incarnations.

Khajuraho, 11th century AD.

Nr. 24: Khajuraho

Archaologisches Museum (1)

Nr. 24-1: Khajuraho

Archaologisches Museum (1)

Ruckansicht (Foto Avasthi)

Stein: 29 x 23 x 15 (Fragment)

urspr. 16 Hande

Khajuraho, Archaeological Museum

25.1 DESCRIPTION:

A fragment of a small ViÀ¸u image which originally would have stood about 75-80 cm in height. The remaining portion consists of the central face and most of the crown, the torso down to the abdominal region, the stumps of arms on the stele. Although found at Khajuraho, the piece bears a close stylistic affinity to Gurjara-Prat¢h¡ra sculpture of 9th-century Kanauj, for example in the treatment of the lotus in the nimbus, of the crown and its size in relation to that of the head, of the hairline, and, to a certain extent, of the jewelllery.

The main figure represented ViÀ¸u with the side-heads of the Lion on the proper right (preserved, in a naturalistic rendering as compared to the typical Candella stylisation), and of the Boar on the left (broken off). The stumps eight arms or possibly more can be seen on the proper right side, one of which was raised above the head; originally, the figure was at least 16-armed. The torso is ornamented with a hara and graiveyaka, both of which are clearly proto-Candella in style, the ¿r¢vatsa-sign, and a pearlstring yajµopav¢ta. The trirekh¡ on the throat, the high arched eyebrows, and the centrally parted hair, are all prominently shown. The crown is a small kir¢¶a with pearlstrings and a central pendant.

The prabh¡ma¸·ala is an eight-petalled lotus with small pointed tips between the main petals, and the interstices are pierced; the lotus is enclosed in a plain circular band edged with pearls. To the right of the god rises a plain pilaster with a moulded top, above which a pair of flying figures approach the nimbus, the male bearing a garland and the female holding her hands in the namask¡ramudr¡. The reliefs on the right-hand margin of the stele are destroyed except for the head of a vyala.

The style indicates a date in the first half of the 10^th century¹, during the reign of Yasovarman. This and the Thuvon fragment (see Sculpture 27 in this Report) are parts of the two earliest Candella Vaiku¸¶ha images so far known; both are 'proto-Candella' in style, and they may be dated to the moment at which Yasovarman acquired a Kashmiri image of Vaiku¸¶ha from Prat¢h¡ra Devapala on the western border of his kingdom, or soon thereafter, circa AD 945. The two fragments date from the early years in the formation of the Candella Vaiku¸¶ha cult.

25.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION:

Fragment of one of the earliest Candella versions of the VIâÛU VAIKUÛÙHA icon, augmented by sixteen hands to hold a wide range of attributes.

Khajuraho, circa AD 945.

Nr. 25: Khajuraho

Archaologisches Museum (2)

26. DREIKOPFIGER VIâÛU

Stein: 74 x 40

urspr. 8 Hande

Khajuraho, Kandariya Mah¡deva Temple, auBere Sudwand des Sanktums, Anfang des inneren Pradaksinapatha

26.1 DESCRIPTION:

The image is placed in a pillared devakostha well above eye-level, on the external wall of the sanctum, in the first position on the pradakÀi¸¡patha of this áiva temple.

The main image represents ViÀ¸u, with the side-heads of Lion and Boar on the proper right and left respectively; the crowns are kir¢¶a for the central face and karanda for the animal profiles. A plain nimbus encircles the heads. The figure stands in ¡bha´ga to the left, with the weight on the left foot. There were originally 8 hands, of which all but three are broken off: the uppermost right holds the cakra on a level with the Lion-head, the front right holds what appears to be a lotus, and the front left holds the conch-shell in a lateral grip. (Avasthi 1967: 135 claims to have seen the remains of three arrows on the proper left, but these are no longer visible.)

A remarkable feature of this image is the head and shoulders of a diminutive anthropomorphic figure with a kir¢¶a-shaped crown shown superimposed on the cakra, over the central tassle. Avasthi (1967: 135) does not notice this in his description. The figure seems to be emerging from the N¤siÆha side-head of ViÀ¸u, and may conceivably represent the CakrapuruÀa, although a depiction of this personification in such a form and location and would be exceptional.

The ViÀ¸u figure stands between pilasters: at the top of that on the proper right sits BRAHMA, with anthropomorphic GARUÚA holding a snake at its foot; on the left-hand pilar sits áIVA, with LAKâMÌ holding a lotus standing at its foot. In front of the flanking figures sit two devotees with lowered heads and hands joined in the namask¡ramudr¡. Outside the pilasters stand two guardian figures, that on the proper left holding a small blossom.

26.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION:

VIâÛU VAIKUÛÙHA, in the Candella understanding of the form, eight-armed, accompanied by Garu·a and LakÀm¢

Khajuraho, circa AD 1025-1050, in the reign of Vidy¡dhara.

Nr. 26: Khajuraho

Kandariya Mah¡deva Tempel, Pradaksinapatha

27. DREIKOPFIGER VIâÛU (FRAGMENT)

Stein: 46 x 55 x 29

urspr. 6 oder 8 Hande

Thuvon am Ufer des Orr-FluBes, Madhya Pradesh bei Chanderi

27.1 DESCRIPTION:

Damaged bust of a Vaiku¸¶ha image which originally would have stood about one metre in height. The preserved portion extends from the hairline of the head to the abdomen, with the upper parts of three arms on either side. A section of the side of the crown, and the upper part of an animal head (boar) stretching downward from it, remains on the proper left, with a segment of the serrated nimbus still attached at the back. The figure wore a series of narrow necklaces and a wider one with elongated-diamond shaped pendants; longer strings hanging between the breasts, with pearlstrings running toward the back; the diamond-shaped ¿r¢vatsa at the centre of the chest; and elaborate key£ras on the upper arms.

Note: The base of a frame (85 x 108 x 33), probably for this image, was found standing nearby. The feet of the deity remain on the surface of a base lotus, beneath which Bh£dev¢ sits between two N¡gas, their serpentine bodies interlinked in a knot beneath her; to the proper left, CakrapuruÀa (with a kneeling female, hands in namask¡ra, in front) and a female attendant, with above the remains of a seated figure holding a spear or arrow aslant across his body, beside the forequarters of an elephant; to the proper right, áa´khapuruÀa (with a kneeling female, hands in namask¡ra, in front) and a male attendant, with above a quiver of arrows (and possibly the diminutive figure of BanapuruÀa), beside the forequarters of an elephant.

27.2 CHRONOLOGY:

Thuvon seems to be Rakhetra, "on the right bank of the River Or within the limits of the village of Rakhetra, not far from the old site of Chanderi" (ASI 1924-25: 168; DHNI I: 585). It was under Gurjara-Prat¢h¡ra control up to VS 999-1000/AD 942-943, when Vinayakapala alias Mahipala, late Prat¢h¡ra king of Kanauj, issued an inscription from there. This date falls within the reign of Candella Yasovarman alias Laksavarman (c. AD 925-950). In the Khajuraho inscription of Candella Dha´ga in the Laksman temple (dated VE 1011/AD 954), Dha´ga describes Yasovarman, his father, as "a scorching fire to the Gurjaras", and Rakhetra was no doubt one of the areas in which Yasovarman led military campaigns against the territories of Kanauj while extending his own kingdom westward. Dha´ga already possessed Gopagiri/Gwalior, one of the greatest natural fortresses in India to the north, having inherited from yasovarman, and he still held it in AD 954; but Kacchapagh¡¶a Vajradaman took it from the south, and so Rakhetra/Thuvon along with it, by VS 1034/AD 977. The early sculptures in Candella style to be seen at Rakhetra/Thuvon can therefore reasonably be dated to a brief period (about 32 years) of Candella occupation under Yasovarman and Dha´ga between ca. AD 944 976.

Now Yasovarman is said in the Laksman temple inscription (VS 1011/AD 954) to have acquired a Kashmiri Vaiku¸¶ha icon from Devapala, whom both Kielhorn and Ray identify with a Gurjara-Prat¢h¡ra prince of that name operating up to VS 1005/AD 948-949 only 50 kilometres to the northwest at Siyadoni/Siron, where he is mentioned in a Prat¢h¡ra inscription.

It is therefore almost certain to have been in this area of fluctuating frontiers, in the 50-kilometre stretch of land between Rakhetra/Thuvon, once it fell to the Candellas, and Siyadoni/Siron, governed by the Prat¢h¡ras, that Yasovarman acquired the original Vaiku¸¶ha icon from Devapala. The date of this icon coming into Yasovarman's possession would be around AD 944, the earliest date on which the Candellas could have occupied Rakhetra, and the fragmentary Vaiku¸¶ha sculpture discovered there is probably part of the earliest stone copy made of it.

The broken stone Vaiku¸¶ha at Rakhetra has several similarities to the sculpture in the sanctum of the Laksman temple at Khajuraho, but is stylistically and iconographically less sophisticated. It may be dated to the moment when the Candellas most probably took Rakhetra/Thuvon from their Gurjara-Prat¢h¡ra overlords and acquired the Kashmiri Vaiku¸¶ha icon (more than likely in the same campaign), late in Yasovarman's reign and before the much larger stone Vaiku¸¶ha image was made for the Laksman temple in AD 954. A reasonable date is therefore c. AD 945.

A Candella version of the VAIKUÛÙHA image, similar in concept to the main icon in the sanctum of the Laksman temple at khajuraho (see Sculpture 23 in this Report), but smaller both in size and in the number of surrounding deities. Western borderlands of the Candella kingdom circa AD 945.

Nr. 27-1: Thuvon

Pipal ki parh

Nr. 27-2: Thuvon

Pipal ki parh

28. VIERKOPFIGER VIâÛU (FRAGMENT)

Stein: Dimensionen unbekannt.

arme abgebrochen

Entdeckt ca. 1920 in Varanasi von B. C. Bhattacharya (Indian Images, part One, Calcutta 1921: pl.IV); 1930 in der Tepa-Sammlung, Rangpur, heute Bangladesh (Niradbandhu Sanyal, Annual Report of the Varendra Research Society 4, Rajshahi 1930: figs.1-2).

28.1 DESCRIPTION:

An armless bust of crowned four-headed ViÀ¸u, preserved from the top of the crown to the abdominal region. The torso is ornamented on the front and back with a large circular necklace having pointed pendants. On the front, but not on the back, there are two smaller round necklaces within this - a thick twisted torque and a string of pearls, from which a cross-shaped pendant hangs at the centre. A longer four-strand necklace, consisting of pearls and other beads on the front but plain at the back, hangs on the centre of the chest, with a cross-shaped fixture on its lowest curve; the plain strands of this necklace are fixed in the centre of the back with a jewelled clasp and, above this, with a loosely tied knot. The yajµopav¢ta cord is shown on the front and back.

At the centre of the chest, within the loop of the larger necklace, appears the cross-shaped ¿r¢vatsa jewel.

The idealised front central face is ornamented with circular jewelled ku¸·alas, and wears a tall kir¢¶a crown hung with ornamental strings suspended from a diadem in the form of a kirttimukha-mask.

The area of the proper right side-head extending from the brow to the muzzle is broken off, but most of the lower jaw remains; this was clearly the lion-head, with the ears and mane preserved, while the proper left side-head represents the boar. These heads are very large, realistically rendered, and project almost horizontally from the sides of the central face, elevated well above the shoulders of the torso.

The rear face has the tall ja¶¡-muku¶a hairstyle of an ascetic. The features of this face are derived from áaiva iconography, showing a lined forehead and tight stretched skin around a gaping, grinning mouth, from which the tongue appears to have protruded downwards. A thin moustache spreads over the upper lip and curves on the cheeks. The eyes are large and bulbous, with a round lump between them above the root of the broad nose.

28.2 HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION AND CHRONOLOGY:

This is the only surviving Candella ViÀ¸u-image of the Vaiku¸¶ha type (ViÀ¸u having the side-heads of lion and boar) which is known with certainty also to have the Kapila face on the rear. Its combination of these four aspects indicates that it was intended iconographically as a copy of a Kashmiri/Himachali original. Though clearly made by a local sculptor in the Candella style of Khajuraho, the elevation of the animal heads, well clear of the shoulders and parallel to them, is a feature of Kashmiri Vaiku¸¶ha icons, quite different to the downward slanting side-heads which are typical of the indigenous Candella style; this confirms that it is a copy.

The reality of this contact between Candella sculptors and an original Kashmiri Vaiku¸¶ha icon is conveyed by the words of Candella Dha´ga's inscription in the Laksman Vaiku¸¶ha temple at Khajuraho, where an icon of Vaiku¸¶ha from the Western Himalaya ("Kailasa") is said to have been received by his father, King Yasovarman / Laksavarman (stanza 43). In view of the Kashmiri iconography of its four heads, and the elevation of the side-heads, this K¡¿¢ / Varanasi image is clearly the closest surviving Candella copy of that lost Himalayan original. But the earliest Candella version was almost certainly either the fragmentary sculpture at Thuvon / Rakhetra or the image in the sanctum of the Laksman temple, which is dated by inscription to VE 1011 / AD 954, not long after Yasovarman / Laksavarman had received the Kashmiri original from the Prat¢h¡ra Devapala, who was active in the adjacent Lalitpur-Bhopal region to the west of the Candella kingdom in AD 947-8. As the copy made for the Laksman temple was designed to stand with its back concealed against the rear sanctum wall, the identity of its rear face (if it was given one) cannot have been a matter of importance at Khajuraho; and indeed the Kapila face is not found on the back of the two free-standing Vaiku¸¶ha-type images there.

The K¡¿¢ bust, on the other hand, has all four heads, carefully sculpted in the round, and clearly all intended to be seen, as in the Vaiku¸¶ha icons from Kashmir and Chamba, The obvious inference is that the Candella sculptor who made this image was not working from the multiheaded ViÀ¸u sculptures that were created at Khajuraho, which means that he was not working at Khajuraho at all; he was trained elsewhere in the Candella kingdom, and he had the original Kashmiri icon (or a very exact copy) in front of him.

A not unlikely explanation of this curious circumstance would be that the Kashmiri icon was a portable bronze figurine, of which a number are known, and that the Candella king Dha´ga carried it with him to K¡¿¢. Its talismanic properties must have been considerable, associated as it was with the sacred Himalaya, imperial Kannauj, and with Dha´ga's illustrious' father, Yasovarman / Laksavarman, scourge of the Gurjaras. That it should have travelled with his son to the frontiers of the kingdom, where copies of it were made in stone and installed permanently in temples, makes sense in view of the occurrence of Vaiku¸¶ha sculptures not only in the Candella heartland at Khajuraho, but also at Thuvon/Rakhetra, Kalanjara, and K¡¿¢, located respectively in the western, northern, and eastern borderlands of the expanding Candella territories (see Sculptures 27 and 29 in this Report).

28.2.1 CHRONOLOGY:

Despite the Ghaznavid raids of AD 1020 and 1022 from the northwest, the Candellas included K¡¿¢ka / Varanasi within the eastern frontier of their kingdom between the mid-10^th century and the first quarter of the 11^th century; K¡¿¢ka was taken by the Ghaznavids in AD 1034. In very rough terms, therefore, the image could have been installed in a Candella temple at K¡¿¢ka / Varanasi (where it was found by Bhattacharya in the early 1920s) at any time between ca. AD 950 and 1025.

There are, however, two specific epigraphically attested dates with which the image can reasonably be associated. Since it was the long-lived Candella king Dha´ga, son of Yasovarman / Laksavarman, who completed the Laksman temple at Khajuraho and ordered the making of the magnificent image of Vaiku¸¶ha in its sanctum in AD 954 (VE 1011), it would be consistent to date this K¡¿¢ka / Varanasi image also within the dates of Candella Dha´ga's independent reign, while the Vaiku¸¶ha cult in the Candella kingdom was at its height, and while the original kashmiri Vaiku¸¶ha icon was presumably still in Candella possession: that is, ca. AD 954 - 1002. The second date can be reduced by fourteen years to VS 1055 / AD 988, the year in which Dha´ga was sufficiently strong in K¡¿¢ / Varanasi to issue the Nanyaura copper-plate land-grant (Ray, DHNI II: 679) from there.

K¡¿¢ / Varanasi, circa AD 955 - 990.

28.2.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION:

Stylistically, this can only be a sculpture produced in the Candella kingdom. Iconographically, the four heads of the image, particularly the Sive-like raudra face of Kapila at the back, unquestionably identify it as VAIKUÛÙHA according to the Kashmir and Chamba iconography of the 9^th century onward.

VAIKUÛÙHA in the Candella understanding of the name.

Nr. 28: Varanasi

Rangpur

a. Vorderansicht

Nr. 28: Varanasi

Rangpur

b. Ruckansicht

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