Viśvarūpa

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Vaikuṇṭha-Viśvarūpa Vol. III

27. D.Ref.: BAJAURA VR-FRAGMENT #0l-08

Stein: 64 x 71. An der linken Seite der Eingangstreppe, Devi-Tempel, Bajaura (Vyas-Tal), Himachal Pradesh.

27.1 DESCRIPTION

This is a worn and damaged fragment of a sculpture very similar to No.26. The curved top of the stele 1s partly preserved, along with the outlines of the central Viṣṇu face with its crown and ear-rings, and the profiles of the Kūrma, Matsya, Narasiṃha and Varāha avatāras. The shallow relief on the surface of the nimbus has disappeared entirely. There is of course no doubt that this was a Viśvarūpa image with the same iconography as that of No.26.

27.1.1 CHRONOLOGY

The fragment is significant in that it indicates that Bajaura, despite its distance from the new Gurjara-Praīhāra kingdom in Uttar Pradesh, and despite the difficulties of communication which are so evident in the sculptural style, was nevertheless a Viśvarūpa cult-centre. The reasons for this cannot now be known with certainty. The fact that the place had in earlier times (ea. AD 800) been a focus of the Kashmiri three-headed Viṣṇu cult (as No.25 demonstrates) may well have made the priesthood in Bajaura more receptive to the Viśvarūpa form of Viṣṇu, since the two are iconographically closely related. That direct Pratīhāra political influence was felt at Bajaura is very doubtful: the tenuousness of the link between the North Indian plains and the Western Himalaya is clearly suggested in the eccentric interpretation of the iconography in No.26. However, in the marked absence of direct Northern Indian artistic influence -- these sculptures were not produced by an artist from the North Indian plains, nor did an image from there serve as the model -- the most convincing explanation for the appearance of at least two large Viśvarūpa images of Kānyakubja iconography at Bajaura is a political one: namely that this region in the Lower Vyas Valley turned its back on Kashmir in the north and aligned itself to the south, to become a (no doubt self-governing) tributary or ally, either of the Gurjara-Pratīhāra empire itself or, as would seem more probable, of one of its feudatories in north-western Uttar Pradesh, at some point in the late 9th-10th century. This connexion with the North Indian plains may have by-passed the Sutlej Valley, since no Viśvarūpa remains were found there, although there is a serviceable pass over the mountains between the Vyas and the Sutlej from near Bajaura to Nirmand and Rampur above Nirth. Despite the existence of this pass, the older three-headed Viṣṇus at Bajaura and Nirth -- both datable to ca. AD 800 -- nevertheless come from two different sources: the Nirth example (in the Durgā temple: No.23) is North Indian in inspiration, wile the Bajaura version (No.25) is Kashmiri in character. This strongly suggests that the mountain range between the Sutlej and the Vyas was the cultural and political boundary between North India and Kashmir at the end of the 8th century. The Bajaura Viśvarūpa image and fragment would then represent a temporary penetration of the Kashmiri culture-area from the south about a century later (late 9th or early 10th century), when the Pratīhāra empire was at the height of its power. That this penetration was ideological rather than political or cultural in any formal sense is shown by the fact that the iconography of the religious emblem of Pratīhāra power, the Viśvarūpa icon, was interpreted and formulated wholly in the local stylistic idiom of the Vyas Valley. The concept penetrated, but neither political rule nor cultural contact, in the form of administrators posted to the region or immigrant guilds of craftsmen, are likely to have been its vehicle; an ideological realignment among the rulers of Bajaura therefore seems to be the explanation. The situation here has an approximate historical parallel at Khajuraho in the mid-10th century, when the Candella rulers adopted the Kashmiri Vaikuṇṭha and re-interpreted the image in their own terms (a. T. S. Maxwell, Bericht an die DFG vom 30.07.1992: S.96-113).

The southward alignment postulated here seems to correspond to the period of "Pratīhāra Renewal" suggested by Pastel, Neven and Mankodi (Antiquities of Himachal, Bombay 1985: 90-92, 105-111):

"With the foundation of the town of Chamba at the end of the first quarter OP the tenth century, Kashmiri influence seems to have been replaced at least partially by a classical north Indian Pratīhāra current Par about one century after which this Pratīhāra renewal merged with later classical artistic tradition" (ibid., 90).

"With the foundation of a new capital, that is Chamba town, at about the end of the first quarter of the tenth century, the State of Chamba seems to have gained a new sovereignty, and, without definitely discarding Kashmiri culture, became permeated (by) North Indian aesthetic patterns of the Pratīhāra dynasty. As is evident in stone architecture in Chamba and elsewhere (Bajaura, Jagatsukh) a new local stylistic idiom mingled Kashmiri and Pratīhāra styles...The third Period is marked by a progressive shift from Kashmiri to Pratīhāra influence, as if Kashmir has slowly lost its political power while Chamba was gaining a new in dependence and, plausibly also, new territorial gains (such) as Kullu (Bajaura) and the Kangra valley...The earliest group, perhaps, of sculptures belonging to the Pratīhāra Renewal is to be seen in the Bajaura temple in Kullu. We date it - although in a perspective of relative chronology and without any absolute certainty - to the tenth century and. taking the datable Gauriśaṅkara group (the Śiva and Pārvatī bronzes) of about the end of the first quarter of the eleventh century in Chamba into consideration, we may surmise Bajaura to be much older, not later than the mid-tenth century, and possibly even earlier" (ibid., 105).

The Viśveśvara Mahādeva temple at Bajaura is more plausibly dated by Krishna Deva (Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture, 11.2. OUP and AILS Delhi 1991: 114-116) to "c. the first half of the ninth century. The Viśvarūpa sculpture and the fragment are later than this temple, and my dating of these sculptures (below, $27.2) fits in rather with Krishna Deva's earlier dating of the temple, in the precincts of which the image now stands, than with the later dating of Postel et al.

Fragment at Bajaura of a Viśvarūpa image of North Indian type, similar to No. 26 and also datable to the late 9th or 10th century.

Nr. 27: Bajaura

Viśveśvara-Mahādeva-Tempelbezirk

Visvarupa, Devi-Tempel, Bajaura, Himachal Pradesh

28 D.Ref.: V.K. NAGGAR #20-25

Stein: ca. 60 x 45

Sanktum des Votiv-Temples vor dem Gaurīśaṅkara-Temple, Naggar, Himachal Pradesh

28.1 DESCRIPTION

This s a severely damaged, late version of the three-headed Viṣṇu seated with Lakṣmī on anthropomorphic Garuḍa. It is included here for the sake of completion of the archaeological record. There is no direct evidence that the small votive temple, on the high slope in front of the Gaurīśaṅkara temple, in which it now stands, was its original location.

The image consists of a roughly round-topped stele with a projecting base and pillars in relief on each side. Viṣṇu sits on anthropomorphic Garuḍa with Lakṣmī standing to his left. The deity seems to hold a long mace or pestle in one of his right hands. Damage to the surface of the stone preludes any more detailed analysis of the iconography of this late piece.

28.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION

Three-headed VIṢṆU with Lakṣmī on Garuḍa. Naggar, ca. 15th-16th century.

Nr. 28: Naggar

Gaurisankara-Tempel

stein: ca. 30 x 20

4 Arme

Abakusrelief, rechte Saule, Eingang des Gaurīśaṅkara-Tempels, Dasal

(Vyas-Tal), Himachal Pradesh.

29.1 DESCRIPTION

The Gauriśaṅkara (Śiva) temple at Dasal, an elegant example of a towered shrine based on the Indian model but in a fully local style, has two detached round pillars on either side of the entrance to a narrow porch in front of the sanctum doorway. The two abacus blacks carry depictions of miniature towered shrines on the front, each containing a seated deity. Brahmā appears on the left, Viṣṇu on the right. Their purpose is clearly to serve as attendant deities on the central god in the sanctum, who is Śiva represented by the Liṅga.

The Viṣṇu figure is shown seated in lalitāsana on anthropomorphic Garuḍa. The crown is of the late, straight-sided triple-peaked type, but with interposed extra peaks. The Varāha face is on the proper right of the central Viṣṇu head, the Narasiṃha face on the left, which is the reverse of the usual arrangement. The front hands hold the circular lotus on the right, and support the conch on the left; the raised rear hands have the mace on the right, the ring-shaped disk on the left. Garuḍa is depicted as a dwarf-like anthropomorphic figure holding a pot in both hands and a long serpent.

29.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION

Three-faced VIṢṆU on Garuḍa, without Lakṣmī, in the local style of the Western Himalaya of ca. late 12th - 13th century.

Nr. 29: Dasal

Gaurīśaṅkara-Tempel

Visnu, Gaurisankara-Tempel, Dasal, Himachal Pradesh

30. D.Ref.: VK DASAL #16-17

Stein: ca. 70 x 35

4 Arme

Linke Innenwand des Sanktums, Gauriśaṅkara-Tempel, Dasal (Vyas-Tal), Himachal Pradesh.

30.1 DESCRIPTION

This is a very late, crudely carved, roughly rectangular stele depicting three-faced Viṣṇu seated on anthropomorphic Garuḍa without Lakṣmī. Its iconography is similar to that on the entrance pillar abacus (No. 291. of which it may well be a later copy. The relief is flat and the iconography had been only partly understood (Garuḍa is shown with pronounced female breasts, for example). The crown has been carved in rectangular shape, widening at the top, on which the triple peaks have been incised. The side-faces of Narasiṃha and Varāha are incised on the back-slab and scarcely distinguishable from each other. The front right hand holds a lotus bud, the 1eft a semicircular object which presumably represents the conch. The rear right, which almost resembles a trident, the rear left the disk which looks rather like the small round shield (kheṭaka). The feet of Viṣṇu rest on the shoulders of the diminutive Garuḍa, who holds a pot in his front hands, and a large serpent in his rear left, and a parasol in his right, which evidently indicates an iconographical confusion between the diminutive Garuḍa figure and the dwarf (Vāmana) incarnation of Viṣṇu. The short legs of Garuḍa are still shown in bird-like form.

30.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION

A late 'Pahari'-style three-headed Viṣṇu on Garuḍa, without Lakṣmī. It can safely be dated after the 15th century, perhaps as late as the 17th century.

Nr. 30: Dasal

Gaurīśaṅkara-Tempel

Visnu, Gaurisankara-Tempel, Dasal, Himachal Pradesh

31. D.Ref.: VK DASAL #18-26

stein: 103 x 54

4 Arme

Linke Seite des Manḍapa, Gaurīsaṅkara-Tempel, Dasal (Vyas-Tal), Himachal Pradesh.

31.1 DESCRIPTION

This is the second of two loose sculptures of three-headed Viṣṇu which have been placed inside the Gaurīsaṅkara temple at Dasal. It is a late image, but despite erosion it can be seen to be of relatively good craftsmanship as compared to No.30. The stele is rectangular with a rounded top, the edges of which have been cut with precision. The image, in fairly high relief is supported on a projecting semicircular lotus-base.

The crown is of the triple-peaked type, with a half-lotus above it on the stele. The remaining iconography of Viṣṇu, and of Garuḍa, is the same as in No.30, except that the lotus in the front right hand of Viṣṇu is of the round type. The tail and wing feathers of Garuḍa are still visible on the stele. Lakṣmī is typically shown as a far smaller figure than Viṣṇu, squatting on his left knee with her back to the god and her face turned towards his.

31.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION

The image represents three-headed VIṢṆU on Garuḍa, with Lakṣmī in the local style of the Western Himalaya. It can be dated to ca. 15th century.

Nr. 31: Dasal

Gaurīśaṅkara-Tempel

Visnu, Gaurisankara-Tempel, Dasal, Himachal Pradesh

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