BECOMING VISHNU

Doris Meth Srinivasan

It used to be presumed that Vishnu is the placid god while Shiva is the terrifi c one. Though Vishnu does not have the fearful edge that Shiva does, he is by no means passive. Vishnu is a god of energy even in the early period. He and the divinities that come together to comprise his nature are characterized by energetic motion. Their action is benefi cial and foretells the later hallmark of Vishnu’s divine power. His capacity to accomplish universal creation, to transform and preserve, and to achieve heroic feats for the sake of humanity explain, in part, the fervent devotion which prevails to this day among Vaishnavas, that is, those who give worship to Vishnu.

The study of Vaishnavism demonstrates that these characteristics of the god were slow to cluster around Vishnu. Probably by the fourth century CE, especially in northern and central India, a theological evolution had achieved foundational stability, and Gupta art refl ects the Vaishnava synthesis. Earlier, from about the second century BCE through the second to third centuries CE, the above-named benefi cial characteristics defi ned three different deities who would slowly merge to become the Supreme God. These deities are Vedic Vishnu; Narayana, a deifi ed ancient Brahmanic sage; and a group of deifi ed clan heroes known as the Vrishni Viras. Each arose out of a different religious group; some may have been a different sect. This essay describes the imagery pertaining to Vedic Vishnu, Narayana, and the Vrishni Viras in order to show how their depictions merged and contributed to the subsequent splendid visions of Vishnu in Gupta art and beyond.

It should come as no surprise that various beliefs held by different groups would coalesce to establish the Vaishnava tradition. Surely the incorporation of the Buddha as a descent (avatar) of Vishnu in the established Vaishnava tradition implies that numbers of Buddhists adopted Vaishnavism, which, accordingly, accommodated them. This followed the earlier assimilation of devotees of Vedic Vishnu, the ascetic Narayana, and the Vrishnis with one another to establish the greatness of Hindu Vishnu. Distinctive imagery for each was formed during a time when separate teachings were merging into the doctrines of an all-inclusive Vaishnavism that is the focus here.

Vedic Vishnu epitomizes motion. In the Rig Veda, the earliest Brahmanic collection of hymns, hymn number 6.49.13 extols Vishnu who takes three strides in three earthly regions (earth, atmosphere, heaven). The reason for his action is to aid “man in distress.” The Rig Veda, dated about 1300–1000 BCE, contains hymns to Vishnu who, far from

being the Supreme God of later Hinduism, nevertheless is lauded with core concepts that will remain and intensify in Vaishnavism and Vaishnava imagery. Remarkably, more than a millennium before the fashioning of Vishnu’s image as Trivikrama (He Who Strides over the Three Worlds in Three Steps), and before the incorporation of the belief in Vishnu’s periodic descents (avatars) into the world for the benefi t of mankind, the words of the Rig Veda seem to foresee it all:

Vishnu, who thrice traversed the earthly regions for man in distress, in this, your offered protection, may we rejoice with our wealth, we ourselves and our offspring. —Rig Veda hymn no. 6.49.13 (hereinafter “RV”)

From the beginning, Vedic Vishnu has the power to pervade space and act for the benefi t of man. The same Veda also asserts that he can assume different forms ( RV 7.100.6). In short, the groundwork is laid for the later development of Vishnu’s Trivikrama form. However, between the three strides of Vedic Vishnu and those of Trivikrama, an important transfer occurs. The three strides are transferred from the god himself to his avatar as the dwarf (Vamana), who in this guise tricks a demon named Bali in order to regain the organized world for gods and men. This transference is developed further in several later Vedic texts dating from the beginning to the middle of the fi rst millennium BCE. The Mahabharata picks up these Vedic threads and relates the avatar story wherein the little dwarf asks Bali for as much of the world as his three paces can measure. When Bali agrees, then the dwarf assumes his true divine size and covers the entire world with his three steps.

Images of Trivikrama can be distinguished into three different types depending on the height of the striding leg; raised to the level of the other knee, the image represents the regaining of the earth; raised to the level of the navel, signifi es the mid-region or the sky; and to the level of the god’s forehead, means the regaining of the heavenly regions, that is, repossession of the totality of earthly spheres.

An early image of Trivikrama raising his leg to his navel comes from Mathura and was fashioned during the Kushana period (fi g. 1). Originally the god would have had eight arms, though four remain only on the right side. In descending order, starting from the top, the four hands hold a rock, a sword, arrows, and, held close to the chest, by the natural hand, a round object.

Figure 1 | Trivikrama, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, c. 2nd–3rd century. Government Museum, Mathura. Photograph by Doris Meth Srinivasan

Figure 2 | Narayana, Nadan, Agra district, Uttar Pradesh, c. 2nd–3rd century. Government Museum, Mathura. Photograph courtesy Government Museum, Mathura Much of the narrative drama is encoded into the numerology of the fragment. A supranormal number of arms probably signifi es the capacity to engage in supranormal action. The number eight qualifi es the nature of the action. There could hardly be a number whose symbolism is better suited to the Trivikrama myth. Being the double of four—a number closely associated with phenomenal space and recalling the four directions—eight emphasizes the doubling of terrestrial space (the four quarters plus the four interstices).

Eight can also be read as seven plus one. In this reading, all of horizontal space (i.e., the four directions) and the three upper regions (earth, atmosphere, and heaven) can symbolize world space. When the number one (expressing all, completeness, unity) is added to seven, symbolic of world space, the resultant number eight conveys the meaning of spatial totality. The conquest of all space for the benefi t of mankind encapsulates Vishnu’s great achievement as Trivikrama and brings to fruition the seed planted in the Rig Vedic hymn of praise.

An extraordinary colossus depicting a Brahman ascetic offers a glimpse of Narayana as he looked to his worshippers at Nadan (near Firozabad, Agra district), where the statue was found (fi g. 2). The fi gure originally stood over eight feet tall, and although it has few attributes, all are earmarks solely of an ascetic, writ large, thus a Divine Ascetic. 1 Lord Narayana has generous facial hair. He has a tilak mark between the eyebrows, and his long ascetic locks are twisted around his head like a turban. The ears are unadorned, and judging from the unpierced lobes, were never decorated with earrings. Over the powerful nude chest, a sacred (Brahmanic) thread is suspended, as well as the skin of an antelope. The skin is symbolic of Vedic culture, for it is associated with ritual purity and asceticism in the Vedic context. A skin of this animal is given to a Brahman boy at the time of his initiation rite. The antelope skin is spread on the ground, purifying the space upon which a worshipper sits, as he performs his rites. This colossal sandstone fi gure made during the second to third century CE (during the Kushana period) was originally two-armed and held two attributes that can still be discerned; the ascetic’s water pot (kamandalu) is on his left and the remains of a rosary is in his right hand. The lower garment, tied by a knotted rope around the hips, is made of a fi brous substance; evidently it is meant to represent the typical ascetic’s garment made of bark, hemp, or kusha grass. As such, every aspect of this impressive personage bespeaks a Brahman Ascetic.

The fact that this Brahman Ascetic once stood more than eight feet tall mandates that this is the fi gure of a god, and not a mortal, no matter how venerated or legendary. Although there are other gods that can exhibit the features of a Brahmanic ascetic, gigantic size is characteristic only of Narayana. He is the divinity who appears as a gigantic ascetic. The height of the statue is therefore a lithic translation of Narayana’s designation as large or great, maha, Narayana. Indeed Mahanarayana is the title of an

Upanishad that discusses, in part, the nature of this god. In this text of about the third century BCE, Narayana is called Purusha, a name that recalls the huge Vedic Primeval Male, out of whom the entire universe was fashioned. In the Mahabharata, Narayana is called Maha Purusha (The Large Male), thus affi rming both his creative energy and his claim to the colossal proportions of Cosmic Purusha. In addition, numerous passages in the Mahabharata praise him as the personifi cation of the Vedic sacrifi ce, its cause, heart, origin, and so on, a claim that Narayana himself confi rms in this same epic. And in a section of the Mahabharata describing the god’s epiphany as seen by a true devotee, it is precisely in this manner that Narayana shows himself (see MhBh 12.326.9). This section also provides clear evidence of the existence of a Narayana cult requiring icons such as this impressive sculpture from Nadan.

Narayana became an important component in early Vaishnava theology and imagery. As Maha Purusha, Narayana represents the cosmogonic totality of a Vaishnava sect called the Pancharatra. This sect postulates that all of creation unfurls when the transcendental Narayana begins to manifest himself. His fi rst manifestation is called Para Vasudeva (Highest Vasudeva). Cosmogony continues as this manifestation differentiates himself into four emanations, called chatur-vyuhas (literally, “fouremanations”). An early icon of Narayana’s revelation can be identifi ed thanks to a remarkable Kashmiri bronze of the fi fth century (fi g. 3). The bronze has an inscription on the base of the image that names the fi gure Narayana; it shows the godhead’s supreme manifestation, Para Vasudeva, plus two other emanations, or vyuhas.

Narayana’s assimilation into the Vaishnava mainstream should have started considerably earlier than the fi fth century CE. Possibly this was aided by the suitability of Narayana’s huge dimensions to the expansive capability of Vedic Vishnu. The character of Vedic Vishnu contains another infl uential kernel. Implicit in the myth is Vishnu’s capacity to become (or project) a form that expands and transforms. This power may be seen as a complement to the cosmogonic energy of Narayana, who activates a series of vyuhas. The names of the four (chatur) vyuhas—Vasudeva, Samkarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha—are fi rst mentioned in the Narayaniya account of the Mahabharata. They are the names of four of the fi ve Vrishni Viras and as such represent the third group of deities drawn into becoming Vishnu.

The Vrishni Viras were an actual ruling clan in the town of Mathura, probably their ancestral home. Seven miles from the town an inscription was found which names fi ve Vrishni Viras, all related by blood or marriage. 2 By the time of the inscription, dating to the early decades of the Common Era, these Vrishnis had become deifi ed. But they are still named according to importance in the Vrishni lineage system, not according to religious popularity. The senior-most person listed is the elder brother Samkarshana/ Balarama; his younger brother is Vasudeva-Krishna, destined to become one of the most important gods in Hinduism and an avatar of Vishnu; the others named are

Figure 3 | Para Vasudeva–Narayana, vyuha of Narayana, from east of the Indus River, perhaps Kashmir, reportedly found at Kashmir Smast, Pakistan, 5th century. National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. Photograph courtesy private collection, Tokyo

Figure 4 | The Five Vrishni Viras fl anking Narasimha, Kondamotu, Andhra Pradesh, c. early 4th century. State Museum, Hyderabad. Photograph courtesy Archaeological Survey of India Pradyumna, Samba, and Aniruddha. The Vrishni gods belong to the third religious tradition infl uencing Vaishnavism, namely the Bhagavata religion.

An early icon intimating the association of Narayana with the Bhagavata movement comes from Bhita, in Uttar Pradesh; it seems to depict a Proto-Chaturvyuha, and dates to about the second century BCE. By around 50 BCE these two belief systems— the Bhagavata and the Pancharatra—seem to have formed some connection. An inscription, found in Rajasthan, records that a stone pathway for the place of worship to Samkarshana and Vasudeva was erected within Narayana’s stone enclosure.

Vasudeva-Krishna of the Vrishnis contributed features that were to become prime factors in Vishnu’s appeal and strength. Vasudeva-Krishna, the Supreme Godhead of the Bhagavatas, in their text the Bhagavad Gita, declares his readiness to become immanent in the world, age after age, to protect the good, should they be threatened:

For whenever right languishes and unright shows its head, then I send forth Myself. To save the righteous and destroy the wicked, to establish the right, I come into being age after age. —Bhagavad Gita 4.7,8 3

Surely these are the words of a compassionate god, ready to descend into the world in some earthly form for the benefi t of mankind. This declaration is often taken as the beginning of the avatar notion that plays such a critical part in Vishnu’s later imagery and theology.

Vasudeva-Krishna’s readiness to enter the world and even become responsive and accessible to devotees complements the powers inhering in Vedic Vishnu and Narayana. The accessibility of this god differs from the transformative energy of Vedic Vishnu and the creative energy of Narayana, although it must quickly be added that these complex deities wield powers in domains that overlap.

It is not hard to see that the fusion of powers belonging to the main gods of these three early religious traditions could eventually produce a great god who captured the minds and spirits of kings and commoners. By the early years of the Common Era, the process leading to the assimilation of Vedic Vishnu, Narayana, and Vasudeva-Krishna with one another was nearing its conclusion.

A relief from Kondamotu, Andhra Pradesh, offers a window into this process, apparently still ongoing in the southerly region in the early fourth century CE, the date given to this relief (fi g. 4). The stone image is a rare example depicting the cult of the fi ve Vrishni Viras. First stands Samkarshana/Balarama, identifi ed by the club and lion-plough he holds; next to him stands Vasudeva-Krishna with one hand raised but slightly turned inward (vyavritta mudra) and the other with the conch shell; Pradyumna stands with a bundle of arrows, or quiver, and bow; Samba has an indistinct attribute; and Aniruddha holds a sword and shield. But between Vasudeva and Pradyumna there appears an avatar of Vishnu. Vishnu is shown as the ManLion, that is, Narasimha. His body and face are those of a lion but the two arms are those of a human. 4 According to legend, the god becomes half-man half-lion in order to confound the near-invincible demon Hiranyakashipu. The Man-Lion, with the shrivatsa emblem on his chest, is seated amidst the Vrishnis, yet he is as tall as they. The shrivatsa, the outward sign of a great being, becomes Vishnu’s auspicious mark. The Man-Lion holds the chakra, or wheel, and the gada, or mace, in his human hands. Narasimha’s central position, his specifi c attributes, and his emblem suggest his prominence is equal to, if not greater than the Vrishnis, who are arrayed not according to their religious prominence but rather according to their status within the Vrishni clan. The Kondamotu relief is thus a visual benchmark indicating how the integration of different cults slowly consolidated and melded into the overarching Vaishnava system. Michael Meister proposes that this relief may also provide a commentary on one meaning of narasimha, namely “lion among men”; this relief does show Vishnu as a theriomorphic god surrounded by heroes. 5 This suggestion may recall that the Vrishis had been, at one time, considered mortal.

A sweeping glance at the main trends that lead to the arising of Vishnu between the second century BCE and around the fourth century CE enables us now to look more closely at a few remarkable images within this time span. The images selected are noteworthy reference points that lay the foundation for Vaishnava art.

Figure 5 | Vasudeva-Krishna, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, c. 2nd century. Government Museum, Mathura . Photograph courtesy Government Museum, Mathura

The most popular Vaishnava icons made in Mathura during the Kushana age can be identifi ed as representations of Vasudeva-Krishna. The god is four-armed and holds the mace and chakra in his upper right and left hands, respectively. The natural lower right gestures reassuringly and the left may hold a fl ask or a conch, as in fi gure 5. The identifi cation of this type of image is virtually assured because it matches the way Vasudeva-Krishna appears in a series of Kushana Vrishni kinship reliefs also made in Mathura. Furthermore, when a worshipper of Vasudeva-Krishna asks, in the Bhagavad Gita ( 11.46), for the god to show himself in his usual form, that form equates with the icon made by Mathura craftsmen during Kushana times:

I wish now to see you as before With your crown, mace and wheel in hand Become again the four-armed form…

In asking to see this four-armed form, the worshipper in effect craves to see the humane form of Vasudeva-Krishna. The supranormal number of arms probably signifi es the ability to engage in supranormal action. Four qualifi es the nature of the extraordinary action possible. Four is a terrestrial number which evokes the four directions and thus the human sphere. Accordingly, the “four-armed form” suggests a god who can benefi t mankind. The attributes of crown, mace, and wheel are basically royal insignia and probably refl ect the actual hero cult that initially centered around the Vrishni warriors deifi ed in the Mathura region. The humane form of the great god of the Bhagavad Gita appears to be based on the heroic model; Vasudeva-Krishna is the apotheosis of the Great Hero. The Gupta standing images of four-armed Vishnu in the exhibition (cats. 1–3) probably developed from this earlier model.

The avatar concept that took shape around Vasudeva-Krishna, and in accordance with the personality and renowned deed of Vedic Vishnu, inspired the early production of avatar icons. Four such icons of avatars can be dated to the Kushana period. The Kushana image depicting Trivikrama’s act (see fi g. 1), which was incorporated into the myth of the dwarf, or Vamana avatar, has already been mentioned. The image of the Narasimha avatar in the fourth-century Kondamotu relief has also been noted (see fi g. 4). Another, probably late third–early fourth century stone Narasimha depicts this avatar with the head of a lion and the body of a man disemboweling Hiranyakashipu (cat. 62). The ferocity of this Man-Lion is a trait at variance from the benefi cent Vedic Vishnu and the compassionate deifi ed warrior Vasudeva-Krishna. The rudimentary form of this myth and the fi gure of the Man-Lion remain enigmatic. 6

Two other pre-Gupta avatar depictions have ancient antecedents. The seeds for the Varaha, or boar, incarnation occur in early Vedic texts (the Taittiriya Samhita and the Satapatha Brahmana). In these texts, as in the later mythology pertaining to Vishnu, the earth needs to be rescued. In the Vaishnava tale, the Lord, taking the shape of

Figure 6 | Varaha, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, c. 2nd–3rd century. Government Museum, Mathura. Photograph by Doris Meth Srinivasan

Figure 7 | Hayagriva, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, c. 2nd–3rd century. Bharat Kala Bhavan, Benares Hindu University, Varanasi. Photograph courtesy Digital South Asian Library, American Institute of Indian Studies

Figure 8 | Vishvarupa, detail from a lintel, Gadhwa, Allahabad district, Uttar Pradesh, c. 5th century. State Museum, Lucknow. Photograph courtesy Digital South Asian Library, American Institute of Indian Studies a powerful boar, enters the nether world in order to raise the earth up from the sea into which she has sunk. A Kushana relief from Mathura (fi g. 6) represents the boar’s success in clear visual terms: a tiny, pliant earth in the form of a delicate female rests close to the vast shape of the boar, partially a man with four arms and partially an animal with a mighty boar’s head. (The Mathura Museum also houses a Kushana relief of an all-animal Varaha, no. 1254). Hayagriva, the avatar with a horse’s head, is portrayed in a relief now in the Bharat Kala Bhavan, Varanasi (no. 4846, fi g. 7). Legends in the epic connect this avatar with the rescue of the Vedas and indeed, aspects of the legend continue in later Puranic mythology.

It does not seem accidental that Varaha, Hayagriva, Trivikrama (or Vamana), and Narasimha are the earliest avatars depicted. Not only is the avatar notion current in the Kushana age, but also most of these avatars germinate out of prior myths mentioned in sacred or secular literature. There is some merit therefore in postulating

that the avatar concept assisted in the amalgamating process which established the great Hindu Vishnu. Nor is it accidental that most of the avatars have four arms. As discussed above, “four” and “arms” symbolically express the mission of an avatar, namely humane action in the phenomenal world.

The most spectacular visual image invented in Hinduism gives an explanation for the creation of the phenomenal world. The whole world lies within the Creator and is born when the Creator ejects all these phenomenal forms. An image of the “Omniformed One,” or Vishvarupa, is literally extra-ordinary: it portrays a profusion of animals, nature, beings, all within the bodily confi nes of a giant possessing a profusion of multiple bodily parts. The earliest sculptural Vishvarupa brings us to the doorstep of Gupta art, as Vishvarupa Vishnu is seen on a fi fth-century Gupta lintel from Gadhwa (Allahabad District, fi g. 8), and this concept continues to inspire visual renderings, as the paintings in the exhibition demonstrate (cats. 131–33, as well as a print, cat. 173).

With the advent of the Gupta era, different sectarian currents merge. As an inexhaustible, bottomless lake fed by myriad streams, so different revelations meld and fl ow forth from pervading Vedic Vishnu, creative Narayana, and humane VasudevaKrishna, the Vrishni Vira. Superb concretizations depicting qualities of Omnipresent Vishnu—pervasive, creative, and loving, are thereby ushered in.

Notes

1 The image has been discussed at length elsewhere by this author. See “God as

Brahmanical Ascetic: A Colossal Kushan

Icon of the Mathura School,” Journal of the

Indian Society of Oriental Art, n.s. 10 (1978–79 ), 1–16; “Bhagavan Narayana: A Colossal

Kushan Icon,” Pakistan Archaeology no. 26 (1991), 263–71; and “Vaisnava Art and

Iconography at Mathura,” in Srinivasan, ed., Mathura: The Cultural Heritage (New

Delhi: American Institute of Indian

Studies, 1989), 389–90. For other colossal early images of Narayana, see Srinivasan,

Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes: Origin,

Meaning, and Form in Indian Art (Leiden:

Brill, 1997), 136. 2 The inscription was found at Mora, seven miles from Mathura. It states that images of the blessed or deifi ed fi ve Vrishni Viras or

Heroes were installed in a stone shrine of a person called Tosa. See Heinrich Lüders, Mathura Inscriptions. Unpublished papers edited by Klaus L. Janert, Göttingen, 1961, page 155, no. 115. The fi ve Vrishni Viras are also listed in the Vayu Purana, 97.1–2. 3 The Bhagavad Gita, translated by Franklin

Edgerton (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1964 ), 155. 4 This is a correction of a statement in my 1997 book Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes ( 242), where I said Narasimha has four arms. Actually, the avatar has two human hands, plus the two front paws of the lion. 5 Michael W. Meister, “Man and Man-Lion:

The Philadelphia Narasimha,” Artibus Asiae 56, no. 3/4 (1996), 291–301; see 297. 6 Deborah A. Soifer, The Myths of Narasimha and Vamana, Two Avatars in Cosmological

Perspective (Albany: State University of

New York Press, 1991), 73; and Meister,

“Man-Lion,” 297.