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Connected Worship: Locating Pāñcarātra Networks in Western and Central India

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Abstract

The Pāñcarātra cult is one of the oldest surviving sects of Vaiṣṇavism in India today, and its scope of influence covered northern, western, and central India during the early medieval period. The paper in its two sections attempts to trace the developments in the Pāñcarātra iconography up to the Kashmir form that becomes popular during the early medieval period. Further, as per the title, the paper focuses on the mystery of the Harṣatmātā Temple and studies the possibilities that emerge from a study of the iconography present at the temple along with the patrons of the site. The temple is further contextualized with the other examples of the Pāñcarātra iconography in the western and central India during the early medieval period in order to celebrate the shared networks of influences that work in this time and region.

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Notes

  1. Endnotes:

    Uttamur Viraraghavacharya, "Introduction", Śrīpañcarātrapāramyam ed. Lakshminarasimha Bhatta (Tirupati: Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, 1991), iii.

  2. Ibid, v.

  3. The pillar of fire as the established supreme deity in the cosmogonic myths is not limited to Pāñcarātra philosophy. A parallel can be found in the lingodabhava mūrti of Śiva. It is described as a columnar pillar of fire with flames spreading around it. The mythology places Śiva as the primary deity and manifests when both Viṣṇu and Brahmā are unable to find the beginning or end to the flaming pillar. See J N Banerjea, Development of Hindu Iconography (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, [1973] 2002), 462.

  4. Maxwell presents four types of sculptures in the “experimental stage” (from Kuṣaṇa to early Gupta). The four types are the following:

    1. A.

      Vertical arrangement where in each figure that succeeds the other is placed over the previous one.

    2. B.

      The figure is conjoined obliquely opening like a fan from the central figure.

    3. C.

      A composite figure of types A and B.

    4. D.

      Multi-headed icons of varied types. Sāmba was also worshipped separately alongside the other four vyūhas as “group icons” in Mathura during the Kuṣāṇa period and was coalesced to describe a single cosmogonic process in the Pāñcarātra philosophy.

  5. Beginningless, middleless, endless, almighty, many-armed, with eyes that are sun and moon, I see you with mouths that are blazing fires, setting fire to this world with your incandescence. For full text, see The Bhagavadgītā in the Mahābhārata: A Bilingual Edition, Translated and Edited by J.A.B Van Buitenen (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981).

  6. The name “Viśvarūpa” along with Viśva, Nārāyaṇa, and Viṣṇu refers to the same Para Bhagavata or the ultimate consciousness—one God of the Pāñcarātra theology. The Bhagvata Gītā also provides a very descriptive imagery of the Viśvarūpa; see The Bhagavadgītā in the Mahābhārata: A Bilingual Edition, Translated and Edited by J.A.B Van Buitenen (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), 113–114.

  7. Brill’s Encyclopaedia of Hinduism Vol III, 448. The Jayākhyasaṁhitā describes the Vaikuṇṭha to have the four faces of Viṣṇu, Narasiṁha, Vāraha, and Kāpila and mounted on the Garuḍa with auspicious symbols along with four hands holding the conch, discus, mace, and the lotus. See K M Suresh, Iconography of Viṣṇu from Khajuraho (Bharatiya Kala Prakashan, 1999), 98.

  8. Epigraphia Indica, I, 132 (Keilhorn 1892).

  9. Epigraphia Indica, I, 134 (Keilhorn 1892).

  10. Michel Postel, “Foreword” in The Religious Imagery of Khajuraho by Devangana Desai (Franco- Indian Research Pvt Ltd, 1996), xvi. Postel compares the sizes of the known metal icons of Vaikuṇṭha Viṣṇu and states that the four faced brass icon at Chamba, in the Hari Rai Temple is the closest match.

  11. Devangana Desai, “The Lakṣmaṇa Temple: Pantheon and Icons” in The Religious Imagery of Khajuraho by Devangana Desai (Franco- Indian Research Pvt Ltd, 1996),101.

  12. Ibid, 106 According to Desai, it is highly probable that instead of following the Pāñcarātra Āgama texts, the Vaikuṇṭha Viṣṇu representation during the tenth century was influenced by the Vayavīya Saṁhitā of the Śiva Purāṇa.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is the product of my MPhil research on the site, and I am very grateful to Professor Parul Pandya Dhar for her supervision and guidance. I am thankful to the assistance lent by the Archaeological Survey of India during my fieldwork and especially to Dr. Vinay Gupta (Dy. Superintendent Archaeologist, ASI) for his guidance at the Mathura Museum. My heartfelt regards are also with my family, without whose support, the paper would not have been produced in its current format.

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  1. Department of History, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

    Srija Sahay

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Sahay, S. Connected Worship: Locating Pāñcarātra Networks in Western and Central India. DHARM 4, 313–328 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42240-021-00111-4

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