Cosmic Sleep of Vishnu

If Nataraja is the Lord of Dance, Vishnu is the Lord of Cosmic Sleep, who sleeps in the primordial waters of Chaos. By His slumbering wakefulness, He creates the world through the instrument of Brahma, the Creator who abides in the lotus, growing from his navel. One of his celebrated names is Ranganatha, meaning also the Lord of the Stage. He reclines on the coils of the thousand-hooded serpent, Ananta (Endless) known also as Sesha (Remainder). As is Chidambarm to Nataraja, Srirangam isto Ranganatha, and the term Koil (Temple) pertains only to Chidambaram for the votaries of Siva and exclusively to Srirangam for worshippers of Vishnu. “The wise say that the abode of Vishnu isVaikuntam, Venkatam and Malirum-solai, the hill-resort”.¹ So runs one of the Four Thousand Sacred Hymns. Whereas Vaikuntam is the heavenly home of Vishnu, the others are the holy spots where temples are dedicated to the Lord, popularly known also as Tirupati and Alagarkoil. In his heavenly abode of Vaikuntam, Vishnu inhis Sishasayanam–recliningon Sesha, the serpent, whose coilsare floating in the Milky-sea, is the cosmogonic Supreme Lord, the protector of the universe. “It was Narayana who created the Four-Faced Lord (Brahma) and the Four-Faced Lord of his own willcreated Sankara”. ² Thus runs another hymn from the Sacred Four Thousand. Narayana, hence, is the Supreme Lord withinwhose purview are creation, protection and destruction, the three acts of God. Nataraja sculptured in stone and bronze kindled the lamp of devotion in the minds of art-lovers and made them stand in admiration and awe at its symbolism, so much so, Ananda Coomaraswamy wrote that “it is not strange that the figure of Nataraja has commended the adoration of so many generations past, familiar with all scepticisms, expert in tracing all beliefs to primitive superstitions, explorers of the infinitely great and infinitely small, we are worshippers of Nataraja still”. ³ The cosmic sleep of Vishnu and the symbology underlying the Seshasayanam done in relief and sculptured in stone in the north and south in India is equally an absorbing subject for study, understanding and admiration. We get an insight into the seemingly innocuous religious representation, pregnant with meaning and speaking a language at once gripping and unfolding a philosophy, so to say.

Fifth century A. D. was an age of extensive Hindu building. According to Helen Gardner, the basic forms elaborated in all later Hindu temples had already been established by the end of the fifth century A. D. when a Vishnu temple was built at Deogarh in North Central India. All later developments of the Hindu temple were no more than elaborations upon the principles embodied in Deogarh. Agreement apart with the views of this learned art critic, our interest centres around a panel in the south wall of a marvellous representation of Vishnu recumbent on the serpent Endless (Vishnu Anantasayan) of the temple facing west. Though from the view-point of the art-lover, this panel of Seshasayanam in Deogarh temple was a unique portrayal of the theme, it could not be said to be the earliest as in the Silappadhikaram, the Epic of the Anklet of the second century A. D., two postures of the Lord Vishnu, i.e., the reclining posture in Srirangam and the standing posture in Tirupati mentioned. The description of a pilgrim as given in the epic runs as under:

“I am a native of Mankadu, in the region of Kudamalai (the western hills). I came to satisfy my heart’s desire, to see with my own eyes, the glory of Vishnu, whom many worship with prayer as He reposes with Lakshmi in his breast on the couch of the thousand-hooded serpent in the temple of Turutti putting out on the widening waves of the Kaveri, even as the blue clouds repose supine on the slopes of the lofty golden mountain (Meru). I also came to see the beauty of the red-eyed Lord, holding in his beautiful lotus hands, the discus which is death to his enemies, and also the milk-white conch; (to see Him) wearing a garland of tender flowers on His breast, and draped in Golden flowers and dwelling on the topmost crest of the tall and lofty hill named venkatam with innumerable waterfalls, standing like a cloud in its natural hue, adorned with a rainbow and attired with lightning, in the midst of a place both sides of which are illumined by the spreading rays or the sun and the moon”. ⁴

For a study in depth of the symbolism of the Seshasayan of Vishnu a preliminary survey of the ten incarnations of the same Lord may be useful. In his first incarnation, He took the form of fish, matsya, and saved one of the progenitors of the human race, Manu. He helped churning the ocean of Milk by taking the form of the tortoise, kurma, in his second incarnation. In his incarnation as boar, varaha, the third one he rescued the earth from being drowned by the sea. He destroyed Hiranyakasipu by taking the incarnation of Narasimha, Man-lion. His fifth incarnation was that of dwarf, taking his three strides as Trivikrama and subduing the Demon King, Bali. His other incarnations were Parasurama, Rama, Krishna and Gautama Buddha. His tenth incarnation will synchronise with the end of the Dark Age, Kaliyuga, when as Kalki he will ride a white horse with sword in hand. An Ellora sculpture portrays with a dramatic fineness Narasimha, the Man-lion incarnation. In the rock sculpture at Udayagiri assigned to the 5th century A. D., the Boar incarnation of Vishnu has been depicted rescuing the earth from the cosmic sea. The Lord taking the three strides in his incarnation as Trivikrama was a much sought after theme for the artist and the relief and workmanship has been executed with skill, vigour and imagination in the Varaha cave at Mamallapuram. This rock cut relief shows Vishnu in his three steps bringing the universe under his hegemony. His right foot, goes deep down in the nether world subjugating the demons; he raises his left foot which ransacks the universe. The Lord measuring the universe in three strides supports the universe too. He is shown to wield the bow, the shield and the conch on the left and the sword, the mace and the discus on the right. Havell describes this relief of Vishnu from Mamallapuram supporting the universe as “one of the most impressive and powerful of the Mamallapuram group of sculptures”, adding that “the bold generalisation of execution is quite free from the over-elaboration from which later Indian sculpture sometimes suffers.” ⁵ The bow and the conch symbolise the organs of senses and the rudimentary unconscious elements. The arrows emanating from the bow represent the faculties of action and perception. The power of the intellect is symbolised by the mace and the discus represent the mind flying faster than the wind.

Vishnu came into the world taking many incarnations, avatars, both as man and animal to help mankind, when virtue subsides and vice prevails. But the immaculate Lord, the very personification of strength, knowledge and everything good in the universe has been understood to be sleeping in the sea of Milk on his Serpentbed with its infinite coils, served by his divine consort, Lakshmi, the Goddess of prosperity and ail that is beauty, tenderness and love and known also Padmasini, the Goddess of the Lotus. She is the sakti or energy of her Lord. She represents the pomp, the luxuriance or the world, the Lord’s glory. Her sitting at the feet symbolises the sphere of ignorance, for ignorance is the mother of creation in the world. Vishnu’s sleep is described as yoga-nidra, slumbering wakefulness and it is the sleep without its darkness, it is the sleep not of ignorance and dulness, but a sleep of light, a knowing sleep, ari tuyil, a sleepless sleep, tuyila-t-tuyil. He slumbers on Ananta–Endless also called Sesha–Remainder, for the Endless Remainder–Ananta Sesha only remains in the interval, pralaya, between the dissolution of the world and its new creation. Sesha is the consciousness transcending time and space and causality. Sesha remains when all else perishes. No death can devour him for he is infinite and eternal. Sesha in correlation toVishnu is brought out forcefully in the following:

“From morn to eve and from eve to dewy morn,
That which envelops all the fourteen worlds,
The five elements, and ever shines in all;
During the sleep in which all being lost;
That which remains unlost, that consciousness,
Is called the I or Self and Sesha forms;
Its inner light is Vishnu great, the Lord,
The love, the light, the sat, the bliss and strength”. ⁶

Both the animal and the vegetable kingdoms are represented in Seshasayanam by the serpent and the lotus. It is a lying posture from one end of the universe to the other symbolised as from head to foot. The Vishnu Purana explains the symbolism of Seshasayanam and the ornaments the Lord wears. There is the kaustuba gem adorning His breast which symbolises the pure and everlasting soul of the world. The mace represents the intellect which faculty protects one against the arrows in the war of life. His necklace, vaijayanti, is composed of the five precious gems-pearl, ruby, emerald, sapphire and diamond symbolising the five elements. The Sri-vatsa mark on the forehead is symbolic of the chief principle of things–Pradhana. The conch-shell in one of his upper hands represents creation–due to the vibration caused by the sounding of the same. The discus, chakra, is symbolic of the mind speedier than the winds and swifter than lightning. The Lord’s colour is “the deep transparent blue pure as crystal of the Himalayan sky when it has been swept by the monsoon storms.” ⁷ As he is the Lord of the firmament and the many universes beyond and far beyond, verily he is blue and the holy eagle, a denizen or the sky is his vehicle. The Lord is loftier than the universe and minuter than the atom. Poikai Alwar places at His feet with a shining discus his garland of words bylighting the lamp of sun with the universe as the container and the oceans as the feeding ghee.⁸ More subtle is the description by Bhutattalvar who lit the lamp of wisdom with love as the container, devotion as the feeding oil and the mind as the wick.⁹ Peryalwar saw the Lord thus doing away with metaphor. “Spied I prosperity, the lovely form, the shining colour dazzling as the sun; the tower of strength that is the golden discus; the winding zigzag-lined conch-shell in hand. In my Lord of the ocean-hue, to-day.” ¹⁰ 

Significant as is the motif of Seshasayanam in religious art, there have not been many creations as has been the case with Nataraja sculptures in stone and bronze and in relief too produced ad infinitum from the time the Ananda Tandava model got standardised and being cast even today. The reasons are not far to seek. Being a lying posture, Seshasayanam requires considerable horizontal space and the procession deities being bronze ones, they are always cast in vertical postures. It is too cumbersome to chisel horizontal postures as Seshasayanam in monolithic pillars, as certain inevitable important details cannot be avoided such as Brahma sitting in the blooming lotus the stem of which sprouts out of the navel of Vishnu. The seven-hooded serpent, the discus and the conch-shell in the upper hands of the Lord pose a problem to the artisan. It was perhaps due to this that Seshasayanam as an object of worship has been invariably done in relief. The above observation must not be taken to mean that Seshasayanam as an object of worship was not created at all. Srirangam temple, the holiest of temples for Srivaishnavites in South India as is Benares for Saivites throughout India, has in the holy of holies only the Seshasayanam of Lord Ranganatha. Another important temple in South India where, in the sanctum sanctorum this posture of Vishnu finds a place is the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple in Trivandrum.

It would be of advantage to have a close look at the panel of Vishnu Seshasayanam in the southern wall of the Gupta temple of Vishnu at Deogarh built in the 5th century A. D. The walls are solid ones except that of the entrance and in the south wall is the sculptured panel like a false doorway framed on the wall. The panel is in three parts, the central one depicting Vishnu reclining on the coils of Ananta whose seven hoods form a halo above the crowned head of the Lord. Lakshmi, sitting at his feet, is massaging his right leg with her left hand, while her right hand holds His left foot. From out of his navel grows the lotus stem and in the upper panel is the lotus bloom in which Brahma is seated. To Brahma’s left is Siva with His Consort, Uma, soaring in their bull. To the right of Brahma is Indra in his Airavata and Karthikeya in his peacock. The five Pandava brothers with their common wife Draupadi are found in the base. The central panel which is the main one measures 4ft. 11 inches by 3 ft. 10 inches. The recumbent Vishnu’s hands are without attributes lying parallel to His main body in ease and poise. The Lord is lying in a half-sleepy mood, meditative and graceful. The essential requirements of the Lord’s sojourn in the serpent-bed have all been met. Ignoring the base where the artist inserted the Pandava brothers and their wife to fill in space, the central panel primarily and the upper one secondarily merit examination and scrutiny. The body of the Lord must come in contact with the coils of Ananta as he symbolises the universal living waters and supports the human form of the divine sleeper Vishnu. Heinrich Zimmer says: “Ananta is the abyssal water remaining at the bottom of the universe as its primary life force, energy and substance feeding all. Ultimately Ananta is identical with Vishnu himself, who in human form is seen recumbent on his coils.” He explains further: “At the beginning of time (according to the myth of the flowering of the universe) when the waters are to bring forth forms anew, there rises from the navel of Vishnu, the golden bud of the lotus which expands. This cosmic flower is a transformation of the portion of the substance eternally contained within the God’s gigantic body at the time of the dissolution. It has now reappeared to begin its cycle anew; and it will live again its perennial course. This radiant lotus of the world is Padma, the sakti or divine energy of slumbering Vishnu. She is the awakening of his substance in dream”.¹¹ Vishnu is the source of all creation, as Brahma himself was born of him and besides Himself being the protector, that destruction also is done at His bidding is portrayed by the presence of Siva and Parvati in the upper panel. This panel is important not only because of its antiquity but also for its grace, beauty, rhythm, elegance and melody, mute and at the same time eloquent, exhibiting a symbolic theme. This is a magnificent, impressive piece depicting a well-known theme but done with a rare excellence. In the Prince of Wales Museum at Bombay, there is a Vishnu Seshasayi from the ceiling panel of the hall ofthe Haccappya Gudi, Aihole assigned to the 7th century A. D. But the most famous and beloved of the connaisseurs of art is the rock cut relief of Vishnu Anantasayana on the wall of the Mahishamardani cave in Mamallapuram which was a middle seventh century creation. Stella Kramrish is all admiration for this work of art and Narayana-Vishnu is in sleep on Ananta as at Deogarh and Aihole but “neither of which is equal in conception and quality to this relief, and the mighty figures of the demons, Madhu and Kaitabha brandish their weapons. The small figure of his consort who salutes the good, and or the personified weapons, moving and flying into action, enhance the calm and tension of the scene”.¹² Lakshmi or Sri, the Goddess of prosperity and affluence and arising from the ocean or milk when churned, is the theme of another relief in Mamallapuram. Lakshmi, arising in all her splendour and charm, is thrilled at the sight of radiant Vishnu. This is a piece, with not much of ritualism in it, appealing for its freshness and creative vigour. No major role was assigned to Mother Goddess by the Aryans in their system, because of their anti-female bias. But the same had to undergo a change, after their contact with the pre-Aryan heritage. Zimmer has assessed “there was a gradual return to power of Goddesses in the later religion with their restoration and ideals. These had survived among the masses, and they entered the Brahmanical sphere gradually but relentlessly when the waves of the Aryan immigration were absorbed by the races of the autochthonous civilisation. Goddesses, thereafter, remain predominant in India”.¹³ In a Seshasayana motif, Lakshmi is an inevitable must, as are the serpent and its coils and Brahma. In the later centuries, Lakshmi was given a pride of place, so much so Ramanuja’s school of Vaishnavism is called Srivaishnavism. Sri or Lakshmi, as expressed in Saranagati Gadya, the prose-poem of Ramanuja, is the very embodiment of Divine Grace who mediates between the contrite soul on the one side and the perfect Supreme Being on the other. She tops the list of teachers–Guruparampara, being the first of teachers. ¹⁴

Whatever be the posture of Narayana, the upper two hands hold the discus and the conch-shell. These two are as symbolic as the fine and the drum in the hand of Nataraja. The chakra or wheel in Indian art occupies a conspicuous place. The wheel of virtue-Dhama Chakra of the Buddhist art–has been recognised as the national emblem in independent India. Of all the weapons and ornaments which the Lord wields or wears, the discus is the most popular both among the well-versed scholars and the ignorant and illeterate folk. The conch is the Lord’s Bugle, bythe sound waves of which the universe is created, as the beats of the kettle drum of Nataraja. The discus has a philosophy enshrined in it and it is coeval with that of Narayana who handles it. The discus is as important as its wielder and is being worshipped as Vishnu himself. Vishnu is the midday sun from the time it sets in the west and goes below the horizon, which is Siva till it rises in the east making the lotus blossom, which is Brahma. “Vishnu, the principle of equilibrium is the sun at work standing between Brahma and Siva as mediator”.¹⁵ Seshasayana Vishnu captivated the minds of artists for several centuries in India, more so for the symbology enshrined in it. There have been sculptors who had drunk deep in the lore of the Puranas and it is learnt from the Avantisundarikatha that the Sthalasayana Seshasayanam of Vishnu in the shore temple at Mamallapuram was repaired by one Lalitalaya during the early Pal1ava period.¹⁶ Seshasayanam as an art motif attracted the attention of art lovers and critics the world over surcharged in it with symbols stimulating one to think. Vishnupurana says:

“The Supreme Eternal Hari is time, with its divisions of seconds, minutes, days, months, seasons and years. He is the seven worlds. He is First born before all the first-born; the supporter of all beings, himself self-sustained; whose shape is all visible things; who is without shape or form. I am Hari. All that I behold is Hari. Cause and effect are from none other than Him. The man who knows these truths shall never experience the afflictions of world by existence”. ¹⁷

Visual arts have been identified as “the selective communication of human experience in tangible forms existing as matter in space.” Not much benefit will accrue to a student of art if he restricts his scope only to speak, to read and to write. He should develop the technique of how to see a work of art, if his study is to be fruitful and fascinating. Realism in art is a misnomer. Whatever be the perfection attained in works of art: they are but visual representations of what are real. The question gets complicated in case of religious or mythological art, as the artist renders something imaginary and supernatural into something visible and understandable Seshasayanam is one such.

References

¹ Ramanuja Noorrantaati–Tiruvarankattamutanaar
² Naankam Tiruvantaati–Tirumalisai Aalvaar
³ The Dance of Shiva–Ananda Coomaraswamy
⁴ Silappadhikaaram Katukaan Kaatai–V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar’s translation
⁵ The Art Heritage of India–E.B. Havell
⁶ Rambles in Vedanta–B.R. Rajam Iyer
⁷ The Art Heritage of India–E.B. Havell
8 Mutal Tiruvantaati–Poykai Aalvaar
⁹ Irantaam Tiruvantaati–Bhootattaalvaar
¹⁰ Munram Tiruvantaati–Peyaalvar
¹¹ The Art of Indian Asia–Heinrich Zimmer
¹² The Art of India through the Ages–Stella Kramrish
¹³ The Art of Indian Asia–Heinrich Zimmer
¹⁴ Ramanuja’s Teachings in His Own Words–M. Yamunacharya
¹⁵ The Art Heritage of India–E.B. Havell
¹⁶ Indian Sculpture–C.Sivaramamurti
¹⁷ Rambles in Vedanta–B. R. Rajam Iyer