8(a): Image Making: The Concept

The tradition of image worship appears to be very ancient. In the Vedic time,.there was not seen the practice of image worship was not recorded. In the Yajurveda, the existence of image is clearly refuted^[1] and god is accepted as bodiless.^[2] Moreover, according to the Śvetāśvetaropaniṣad, god has no form and cannot be seen through eyes.^[3] Max Müller denies the existence of idol worship in Vedic time.^[4]

Though during the Vedic time, idols were not in their tangible form, the images of different gods and goddesses used to be imagined by the people of that era. Actually Vedic texts are regarded as the principal sources of all ideologies of Indian culture. So, it can be said that the idea of making images of different gods and goddesses according to their attributes comes from the Vedic texts, where various forms of different deities have been praised. In the Ṛgveda, the form of Virātpuruṣa is described with thousand heads, thousand eyes, thousand legs and ten fingers^[5] , that can generate an idea of a huge form of the Virātpuruṣa in our mind. Thus people of the Vedic period created the images of their lords in their minds and worshipped them. According to the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa, from the kaliyuga, the necessity of temple as well as practice of image worship had started.^[6] The development of Iconography had been continuing in the society of India through the pages of epics and purāṇas.

The texts of the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata also include the discussion of image worship which can be the evidence of idol worship of that time. In the Ayodhyākāṇḍa of Rāmāyaṇa, the reference of an image of Viṣṇu has been found.^[7] The evidence of the presence of idols of gods is found in the Mahābhārata.^[8] In the Puranic literature, a great discussion on Iconography can be found. The sixteenth Chapter of Agnipurāṇa deals with Iconography. In the Matsyapurāṇa, ten chapters from 258^th to 267^th are attributed to Iconography. The Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa also has offered a great discussion on Iconography. Moreover, Śilpaśāstras viz., the Bṛhatsaṃhitā, Mānasāra, Śilparatna, Devatāmurtiprakaraṇa etc. have the discussion on Iconography. Thus it can be assumed that in later period the practice of image worship came forward and still the practice of image worship is prevailing in Indian society.

In Sanskrit, different words like mūrti, pratimā, devatārūpa etc. are used to denote image or idol. In the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa the word pratimā is used to denote image and it gives a detail explanation on the characteristics of images of various gods and goddesses^[9] in the chapters from 44 to 85. The characteristic features of the idols of various gods and goddesses have been taken for discussion here.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

na tasya pratimā’asti…../ Yajurveda, 32.3

[2]:

sa……..akāyaṃ……/ Ibid., 40.8

[3]:

na saṃdṛśe tiṣṭhati rūpaṃ asya na cakṣuṣā paśyanti kaścanainam/ Śvetāśvetaropaniṣad, 4.20

[4]:

The religion of the Veda knows of no idols. The worship of idols in India is a secondary formation, a later degradation of the more primitive worship of ideal gods. Max Müller, Chips from a German Workshop, Vol. I, p.37

[5]:

sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ/ sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt/ Ṛgveda, 10.90.1

[6]:

viśeṣeṇa kalou kāle kartavyaṃ devatāgṛhaṃ/ Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa, 3.1.4

[7]:

……śrīmatyāyatane viṣṇoḥ śiśye naravarātmajaḥ/ Rāmāyaṇa, 2.6.4

[8]:

devatāyatanasthāśca kauravendrasya devatāḥ/ Mahābhārata, 6.108,11

[9]:

proktaṃ tvayā dvijaśreṣṭha pratimālakṣaṇaṃ śubham/ Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa, 3.44.1