7(d): Portrait of Different Places in Painting

[Full title: 3.7: Different Kinds of Portrait used in Painting (citra) (d): Portrait of Different Places in Painting]

In the context of identification of some particular places through picture, the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa gives some instructions. According to this book, a city should be represented in a picture with various temples, mansions, markets, residences and royal roads.^[1] The lofty temples, huge mansions, markets, specious market roads etc. of the city of Ujjayinī as stated in the Kādambarī^[2] be a model for a picture of a well designed city.

The Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa states that a picture of village should be adorned with some houses along with gardens.^[3] According to this book, the picture of a fort should be accompanied by entrances of the enclosures of the fort, mud walls, palaces and mountains.^[4] The picture of a market should contain merchandise land.^[5] A beautiful picturisation of a market which replicates same of the qualities is portrayed in the Meghadūta of Kālidāsa. According to the description of the Meghadūta, the market is filled with conches, pearl shells, emerald gems etc.^[6] Again, drinking places are shown with some men engaged in consuming liquors.^[7]

According to the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa, the picture of funeral piles and dead bodies indicate burial sites.^[8] This book says that the picture of battle field should have caturaṅgabala i.e., a complete section of army consisting of elephants, chariots, cavalry and infantry^[9] . Moreover, the ground of the battle field should be filled with scattered dead bodies smeared with blood.^[10] In the Veṇīsaṃhāra, a fierce description of a battle field is found where the field is filled with dead bodies, human flashes, blood etc.^[11] In the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa, the picture of road is prescribed to be depicted through animals like camel carrying loads.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

devatāveśmabhiścitraiḥ prāsādāpaṇaveśmabhiḥ/
nagaraṃ darśayedvidvān rājamārgaiśca śobhanaiḥ/ Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa, 3.42.61-62

[2]:

asti…...mahāvipaṇipathairupaśobhitā…….divyavimānapaṅktibhirivālaṃkṛtā,…saśākhānagareva mahābhavanaiḥ……sudhādhavalāṭṭahāsā…..ujjayinī nāma nagarī/ Kādambarī, 1. p.85-89

[3]:

vamatyā darśayedvāmaṃ kiñcidudyānabhūṣitaṃ/ Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa, 3.42.62

[4]:

durgānāṃ kartavyaṃ darśanaṃ tathā/ svabhūmiviniveśena vaprāṭṭālakaparvataiḥ// Ibid., 3.42.63

[5]:

paṇyayuktāstu kartavyāstathaivāpaṇabhūmayaḥ/ Ibid., 3.42.64

[6]:

hārāṃstārāṃstaralaguṭikānkauṭiśaḥ śaṅkhaśuktīḥ/ śaṣpaśyāmānmarakatamaṇīnunmayūkhaprarohān/ dṛṣṭvā yasyāṃ vipaṇiracitānvidrumāṇāṃ ca bhaṅgā-nsaṃlakṣyante salilanidhayastoyamātrāvaśeṣāḥ// Meghadūta, 1.33

[7]:

ādhānabhūmiḥ kartavyā pānayuktā narākulāḥ/ Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa, 3.42.64

[8]:

citākuṇapasaṃyuktaṃ śmaśānaṃ ca tathā nṛpa/ Ibid., 3.42.67

[9]:

V.S Apte, The student’s Sanskrit English Dictionary, p.201

[10]:

caturaṅgabalopetāṃ praharadbhirnarairyutām/ mṛtāvayavaraktāḍhyāṃ raṇabhūmiṃ pradarśayet/ Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa, 3.42.66

[11]:

hatamānuṣamāṃsabhārake kumbhasahasravasābhiḥ saṃcite/ aniśaṃ ca pibāmi śoṇitaṃ varṣaśataṃ samaro bhavatu// Veṇīsaṃhāra, 3.1