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Vaikuṇṭha-Viśvarūpa Vol. IV

09. D. Ref.: DREI-oder VIERKOPFIGER VIṢṆU

Stein: 75 x 50 x 27

Arme abgebrochen

Aus dem Kashmir-Tal; archaologisches Depot, Karimchi, Jammu Division, Kashmir (Siwalik-Gebirge, nordlich der Daman-i-Koh-Ebene)

09.1 DESCRIPTION:

This is a mere limbless male trunk, the four heads of which were also broken off at a single stroke but fortunately recovered, from the temple-complex at Karimchi. The two parts were found in the course of restoration work on the temples and deposited, along with several other fragments of less significance, in the sculpture store at the site.

The two pieces together constitute the torso and heads of a Vaikuṇṭha image. The central pat of the crown, most of the middle and right faces, the whole of the left face, all the arms and both legs are lost. The extensive fractures show that the material is a dense black stone, now overlaid on the surface of the sculpture by a dusty reddish-brown patina.

The powerful torso is well modelled, with a thick waist, clearly delineated abdominal musculature, and heavy shoulders. A narrow girdle with a small floral clasp is slung around the hips. The thin upavita cord falls almost vertically from the left shoulder, loops just below the clasp, and passes around the right hip behind a large dagger with a horned pommel. A small diamond-shaped srivatsa appears at the centre of the chest. The figure wears a short single-strand necklace and, very high on the arms, equally simple keyūras. Both ear-ornaments are broken off. Long rolled curls appear on the brow, parted at the centre, below the jewelled crown-rim with its central lozenge-shaped crest-jewel. The chief part of the crown consists of three disks, on the front and sides, of which the central element is mostly lost. The nimbus, which appears to have been small and set well back, is broken off.

There were two large faces projecting laterally from the sides of the central head. That on the left is completely missing, but the black area of the clean fracture has the clear and unmistakable outline of an animal-head with pricked ears. Above it the single peak of its crown appears near the back of the side-disk of Viṣṇu's crown, a conjunction which is copied in the Vallapura Vaikuṇṭha (No.06). The battered remains of the right side-head are little more than a shapeless mass, but a small pointed animal's ear is preserved above Viṣṇu's right ear, as are the curve of the jaw, the brows and the single-peaked crown. On the back of this block, shielded from the side-heads by the remains of the nimbus, appears the large Kapila-face, carve in flat relief. The face is round and grinning, with the wide short nose, the bulging eyes and bulbous frown typical of these Kashmiri Kapila-reliefs. One of the disk-shaped earrings is preserved on the right. The hair rises in thin jatas, with loosened horns of hair on both sides, and passes through a band to form a wide-spreading topknot.

These are the remains of a typical Vaikuṇṭha image from the Kashmir valley, where it was made probably in the 10th century, and transported south over the Pir Panjal range through the Banihal Pass to Karimchi, where it would have been installed in one of the four major temples. There it would inevitably have become the focus of pilgrimages from the plains, and have contributed thus to the spread of the Vaikuṇṭha cult to northern India. An example of its influence in other parts of the hill-region is surely the Vaikuṇṭha image at Vaikuṇṭha image at Vallapura / Bilavar (No.06), sculpted in the local style but clearly copied from a Kashmiri original.

09.2 IDENTIFICATION:

Vaikuṇṭha image from the Kashmir valley, ca. 10th century.

Nr. 09: Kashmir-Taj

Archaologisches Depot, Karimchi, Jammu, Kashmir

11. D. Ref.: Holz: Rahmen, 35 x 19 / Figur, 20 x 14.5

4 Arme

Linke Selte des Sanktumturrahmens, Markula Devi Temple, Markula / Udaipur, Himachal Pradesh

11.1 DESCRIPTION:

This small relief occupies the fourth panel from the base of the left-hand (southern) rupasakha of the 11th-century sanctum doorframe in the wooden temple of Markula Devi at Udaipur/Markula. The sakha is dedicated to the depiction of the ten avatāras of Viṣṇu, and in this position the relief occupies the seventh position as the third of the incarnations in human form, between Paraśurāma and Rāma Dāśarathī. The avatāras, as usual in such doorframe series, have to be read from left to right on each level; on the left-hand doorpost, Kṛṣṇa Vāsudeva appear between Vāmana below and Buddha above. The disposition of these figures is as follows:

The carving shows a four-armed figure, wearing the Kashmiri-style crown, kuṇḍalas, short hara, upavita and mekhala, seated on the pericarp of a circular lotus. The attributes are padma and upright śaṅkha in the lower hands, and a spokeless cakra and ribbed gadā, held by the middle of the shaft, in the upper.

The side-heads are scarcely distinguishable from each other, as is usual in Kashmiri images of the 11th century. Only a narrowing and slight elongation of the proper left profile confirms that the differentiation was still understood, and hat the Varāha-head is conventionally placed.

By virtue both of its iconography and its location in the sequence o the daśāvatāras, therefore, there can be no doubt that this figure represents Kṛṣṇa Vāsudeva as the Vāsudeva as the avatāra of Viṣṇu as Vaikuṇṭha.

11.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION

The carving represents KṚṢṆA VĀSUDEVA as the AVATĀRA OF VIṢṆU Vaikuṇṭha. Markula, 11th century.

Nr. 11: Candrabhaga-Tal

Markula Devi Temple (Sanktumturrahmen), Udaipur/Markula,

Himachal Pradesh

12. D. Ref.: DREIKOPFIGER VIṢṆU (FRAGMENT)

Stein: 16 x 22 x 9.5

Fragment eines 8-armigen Bildwerkes

Aus Ajmer District, Rajasthan (Rajputana Museum Depot 1076)

12.1 DESCRIPTION:

This is a damaged fragment in grey stone representing the three heads of Vaikuṇṭha encircled by a lotus-nimbus with a pearl border and an outer frame of lotus petals. The central face and the lower part of its crown is smashed; the remains of the crown at the top show it to have been a straight-sided cylindrical kirītā. The animal side-heads project from behind the sides of the central face, below the crown rim, Narasiṃha on the proper right and Varāha on the left; they are both angled downwards in the Kashmiri manner, not upwards as in the Mathura tradition. The side-heads wear the sloping karanda-mukuṭa. The end of the sword-blade, originally held in one of the right hands, is preserved on the proper right side of the nimbus, indicating that the image was eight-armed, holding the sword and shield, bow and arrow, in addition to the standard four Vaiṣṇava attributes. The style is consistent with a date in the latter half of the 10th century, by which time the Vaikuṇṭha cult had clearly been established in the Ajayameru (Ajmer) area, which was in a region controlled by the independent Rajputs. The complete image would have been about 60 cm in height if seated on Garuḍa, or about 100 cm if standing.

12.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION

The fragment represents the heads of the Rajput Vaikuṇṭha of the 10th century in the Ajayameru region of Rajasthan.

Nr. 12: Ajmer, Rajasthan

Rajputana Museum, Ajmer (1076)

13. DREIKOPRIGER VIṢṆU

Stein: 41.5 x 30 x 13

Ursprunglich 8 Arme

Makarmandi Tempel, Nimaj, Raipur Taluk, Pali District, Rajasthan

13.1 DESCRIPTION:

The image was found in the sculpture store at the site of the Makar or Makarmandi temple near Nimaj, south of the River Luni, 35 km west of Beawar on the road to Jodhpur. The temple site lies about 2 km across fields to the south of the branch-road to Nimaj.

The damaged sculpture shows three-headed Viṣṇu seated on anthropomorphic Garuḍa against the remains of a rectangular stele. The elongated figure of Viṣṇu is sparsely ornamented with a fairly plain kirītā, broader at the top than at the rim, small but prominent kuṇḍalas, a double-strand pearl necklace, a thick upavita, keyūras, mekhala, and a long vanamālā looping around the face of Garuḍa. One of the raised right hands holds a large fluted mace upright in the right thigh, and the lowest hand on this side appears to have displayed the varadamudrā. The corresponding left hand rests on the left thigh and supports a large inverted śaṅkha. The remaining hands are broken. The figure of Garuḍa, broken off below the waist, supports Viṣṇu's right foot behind his own head, and the left knee.

The side-faces of Viṣṇu show a marked departure from the usual iconography. The Varāha head appears on the proper right, instead of the more usual left, and is angled downwards in the Kashmiri manner. The face on the proper left side is clearly intended to represent Narasiṃha, but is more human, or anthropoid, than leonine in appearance, conveying the distinct impression of being a depiction of a monkey, and this observation applies equally to the features of the anthropomorphic Garuḍa. The bulging eyes are hooded by heavy lids, and they have thick arching brows; the nose is small on an enlarged upper lip, and the mouth is open, revealing a double row of square teeth. Although considerably more effort has gone into the modelling of this face than into the rather characterless boar profile, it is clearly the work of an artist untrained in the representation of animal faces, and who evidently had never seen a Vaikuṇṭha image but was attempting to give shape to the deity on the mere basis of an iconographical description. The predominantly human form of the Man-Lion face suggests that even the concept of Narasiṃha might have been misunderstood. Nevertheless, it is not possible to say that this is an early attempt at formulating the Vaikuṇṭha image in the independent Rajput states in the mid-10th century; the style is late, with a curiously sinuous and attenuated angularity somewhat reminiscent of the Later Kalacuri manner, and must be dated to the late 10th or 11th century (for Kalacuri contact with Solaṅkī territory and the introduction of Solaṅkī influence, see No.1 above, Bilhari, 01.1 and 01.1.1;); for similarities of posture, ornament, ad iconography, but without Garuḍa, compare 11th-century examples from the Paramara regions to the south-east (T. S. Maxwell, Bericht an die DFG vom 14.01.1994, S.206 and 250, Nr. 56 and 66: Hinglajgadh and Pippaliya-Jatti).

13.2 PRELIMINARY IDENIFICATION:

Garuḍa-mounted Vaikuṇṭha of exceptional iconography, produced 75 km to the south-west of Ajayameru in the 11th century.

Nr. 13: Nimaj, Pali District, Rajasthan

Sculpture store, Makarmandi temple

14. D. Ref.: DREIKOPFIGER VIṢṆU

Stein: 74 x 36 x 21

Arme abgebrochen

Ramaji Tempel, Kusuma, Rajasthan

14.1 DESCRIPTION:

The image is a late sculpture which has been installed in the left-hand interior niche of the rebuilt maṇḍapa of the ancient temple of Sadasiva (now called the Ramji ka mandir) at Kusuma, 5 km from Varman, to the north-west of Abu on the road to Bhinmal. It is a Solaṅkī-style image, severely damaged and eroded, now smothered in red sindhur powder. The stele is round-topped with a pancaratha base. Upon this appears three-faced Viṣṇu seated on anthropomorphic Garuḍa. The figure is flanked, on the edges of the stele, by small avatāra-panels, above which an arch of diamond-and rosette motifs frames a nimbus with pointed rays. The Viṣṇu figure has the typically round face and narrow kirītā of the Solaṅkī style, and the side-faces of Narasiṃha and Varāha are extremely narrow. The number of arms cannot be definitely determined due to the damage, but appears to have been either twelve or fourteen. The two front hands are held in the conjoined dhyāna and vyākhyāna postures, forming the so-called yogamudrā.

14.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION

A Solaṅkī image of Vaikuṇṭha seated on anthropomorphic Garuḍa, dating to the 12th of 13th century, from the area west of Abu.

Nr. 14: Kusuma, Abu region, Rajasthan

Ramaji ka mandir (Sadasiva Temple), Kusma

15. D.Ref.: Stein: 19.5 x 11 (Saulenrelief)

8 Arme

Westseite der nordostlichen maṇḍapa-Saule vor dem Sanktum des Somesvara-Tempels (Nr.1), Kiradu, Barmer District, Rajasthan

15.1 DESCRIPTION:

Kiradu (classical Kiratakupa) is situated 16 miles NNW of Barmer and 2 miles from the village of Hatma, in the District of Mallani. The earliest official notice is in the Report for 1907-08 of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western Circle, pp.40-42, 48-54. Temple 1, the Somesvara, stands in the desert at the eastern end of the temple complex facing due west, parallel to the range of hills which form the northern horizon. Kiratakupa was a major centre of the westernmost branch of the paramara dynasty (DHNI.2: 842-843, 925-930; see also Schwartzberg, HASA: 32, 147); local Paramara occupancy of the place seems to date between ca. AD 995-1161, after which there is no further information, but the main Paramara lines (in Lata, Malava, Candravati and Arbuda) endured until ca. AD 1300. The images in the bhadra-niches and the doorframe iconography clearly indicate that this was a Śiva temple. Dhaky dates it on the basis of his stylistic analysis to ca. AD 1020 (Pramod Chandra, Studies in Indian Temple Architecture, New Delhi 1975: pl.60, 92 and captions); an inscription in the temple contains the date V.S. 1210 (AD 1152 / 53), which may however refer to a temporary Cahamana conquest, rather than to the date of construction.

The relief appears on the west face of the pillar standing at the north-eastern corner of the octagonal maṇḍapa, in front of the sanctum on the left-hand (northern) side. The upper image in the sculptured bands on this side of the pillar, below the capital, represent Vaisnavi holding gadā and cakra in her two upper hands; the somewhat larger image of Vaikuṇṭha appears directly beneath it. This relief depicts three-faced Viṣṇu seated on an ornamented cushion behind winged anthropomorphic Garuḍa, as in Solaṅkī images. The legs of Viṣṇu are broken off, but they were clearly raised in a squatting position with the feet supported on Garuḍa's hands. The vanamālā of Viṣṇu loops around Garuḍa's waist like a thick gridle. Viṣṇu has a large round face with backward combed hair, on which is placed a small tapering kirītā. The other body ornaments are kuṇḍalas, a triple-strand pearl necklace, a longer necklace hanging between the breasts, and further strings which loop around them, pointed keyūras, and a beaded mekhala. All the hands and attributes are either damaged or missing, but the following iconography can be reconstituted from the remains:

This is iconographically very close to the classic Solaṅkī image, of course, but the style is earlier, and this applies also to the side-heads, which project from behind the sides of the central face, angled downwards; they are almost concealed by the weapons held adjacent to them in the upper hands, but are not as narrow as they were to become in later Solaṅkī images. The style and iconography are both very similar to those of the early Solaṅkī standing Vaikuṇṭha on the wall of the Viṣṇu temple at Sandera in Gujarat, which is also dateable circa AD 1025-1050 (see T. S. Maxwell, Bericht an die DFG vom 30.07.1992, S.48, Nr. 12).

15.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION

Vaikuṇṭha mounted on Garuḍa, a minor image in the context of a large and important Śiva temple of the most westerly branch of the Paramara dynasty in the mid-11th century.

Nr. 15: Kiradu, Barmer district, Rajasthan

maṇḍapa, Somesvara Temple, Kiratakupa

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