5.15. Various Other Deities in Odisha art

Ganga and Yamuna - The river goddesses, Ganga, Yamuna appear on the door jambs of the vimanas and the mukhasalas with their respective vehicles makara (crocodile) and tortoise. They also appear on the walls of antarala of the Simhanatha temple." The depiction of river goddesses on the doorjambs is a Gupta legacy. In the later temples they are conspicuous by their absence. Gaja-Laksmi In many of the temples the image of Gaja-Laksmi is carved on the centre of the doorway lintel. She is depicted seated gracefully on a lotus with two elephants pouring water over her head from upturned jars on both sides. Two types of representation of Laksmi are noticed. In one the goddess is shown sitting cross legged and in the other she is seated in lalitasana Semi-Divine Figures Among the semi-divine figures mention may be made of flying vidyadharas, yaksas, yaksinis and suparnas (bird with human head). They have been occasionally depicted on the walls of the temples and bear no chronological significance. In the later temples, the Yaksas are represented with their hands uplifted as if raising heavy structures. The knees are bent with the weight of the raised structures. But naga-nagini figures have an important place in the temple structures. Individual figures of naga are rare in the temple sculptures. Detached stone blocks containing figures of naga are noticed in the different parts of Bhubaneswar of which two from the compound of the Muktesvara temple and one from the Sisiresvara appear to have belonged to temples. The figures of naga, serpent; fabulous creature with a human bust, serpent-tail and a canopy of serpent 69

hoods and its female counter part is nagini. The naga figures of the Muktesvara and the Sisiresvara compounds are represented as human figures with canopies of snake hoods and holding foliated vases in their hands. The naga figures appear as dvarapalas flanking the doorway of the Sisiresvara temple. These nagas are standing figures, each with a canopy of snake hoods over the head and holding a foliated vase. Afer the Sisiresvara temple, the nagas do not appear in purely human form. In the later temples, they are found entwined with the pillars. Such naga pillars appear for the first time in the twin temples of Gandharadi and the Varahi temple at Caurasi. These massive pillars, entwined with the nagas and naginis flank the doorway and the windows of the mukhasala. Here the nagas and the naginis are represented combining both their human and reptile forms. The upper portion is in human form with a canopy of hoods over the head and the lower portion is the form of reptile. They are twisted round the pillars in such a way that both the faces with hoods and the tails remain on the fornt side. Such pillars are also found in the entrance to the Panca-Pandava temple at Ganesvarpur and the Rajarani temple at Bhubaneswar. Apart from the above pillars, naga pilasters are noticed in the recesses formed by the pagas on the vimana of the Varahi temple at Caurasi and the Tirthesvara, the Gauri temple at Bhubaneswar and on both vimana and mukhasala of the Muktesvara temple at Bhubaneswar. These naga pilasters also appear in the outer walls of the bhogamandapa of the Jagannatha temple at Puri. At the base of these pilasters two small lions are carved crouching on two elephants. The objects in the hands of the nagas vary from temple to temple. A difference is also noticed in the manner how they are shown on the pillars. At Gandharadi and Caurasi, nagas are shown ascending the pillars with their tails at the bottom, whereas in the some of the temples they are shown descending the pillars with their tails at the top. The treatment of nagas in the naga pilasters of the mukhasala of the Kosalesvara temple at Baidyanatha is different from the others. Here the nagas are purely in reptile form.