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Home >> Orissa Information >> Saiva Features In Balabhadra Chariot
Saiva Features In Balabhadra Chariot - Iconoghaphy and Ambiguity :
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The concepts and imagery associated with the god Siva are problematic enough. Yet this paper addresses the even greater problem of relationships between Saiva images and the complex, protean cult of the Vaisnava Jagannatha. It is worth noting to begin with that the sense of a gulf between Saivism and Vaisnavism may reflect a modern and Western proclivity to categorize Indian religions. The point of exploring these seemingly syncretic forms is to reconsider some of the assump¬tions and methods of art history as applied to Indian iconography in general, not exclusively in this peculiar situation. In brief, I would like to advocate a tolerance for ambiguity, rather than the quest for a single, certain identification in understanding the meaning of Indian images.
Jagannatha and Ekapa'da
Within the cult of Jagannatha one may include the triad of divinities, Jagannatha, the Lord of the Universe himself, usually identified with Krisna, his elder brother Balabhadra, and their sister Sub-hadra. The three are worshipped in the form of images made of wood and other impermanent materials, which are renewed periodically in the Navakalevara ritual and which differ strikingly from tthe mainstream of Hindu stone sculpture. The present, simple, conical form goes back at least to the thirteenth century, when worship of Jagannaina is depicted in reliefs at Konarak. By the end of the twelfth century, the present great temple of Purusottama was certainly in existence at Puri, founded by Anantavarman Codagangadeva and possibly replacing a temple of the tenth century. The history of the cult of Jagannatha has been masterfully studied by the Orissa Research Project of Heidelberg University, demonstrating, for example, that there was not always a triad of divinities and documenting in detail that the aniconic tribal tradition explains the peculiar form of the images. One author in that joint project, von Stietencroa discerns a Saiva "component" in the early evolution of Jagannatha in particular. He argues in part that the cult precedes the ascendancy of Vaisnavism throughout the region of Orissa, in which case a saiva model for the god installed in Puri would be reasonable. His case rests primarily on the visual resemblance between the wooden 'image of Jagannatha and a form of Siva unusually prominent in Orissa in the eighth to tenth centuries, Ekapada Bhairava.
Such one - legged images of Siva do indeed represent a bizarre iconographic type. Several Rg Vedic hymns to all the gods invoke Aja-ekapada. The term aja , in the sense of goat, is represented in the first example of the figure so far identified, the fourth century terracotta from Rang Mahal in Rajasthan. But in later images, all entirely anthropomorphic, that epithet is either neglected or perhaps interpreted as "the unborn one." In the Atharva Veda,, Aja-ekapada appears in the process of making firm the heaven and earth. Such passages lead later commentators, as well as modern scholars of text and myth, to see the god as primarily solar. Iconographers have, however, focused on epic, Puranic, and later references in which AJA-ekapada is clearly Saiva, one of the eleven Rudras. Possibly one-footed ness characterizes several unrelated religious types. Certainly the scattered literary references would not prepare one for the role of Ekapada Siva images in Orissa.
On temples of the late seventh or eighth century and later, such as the T-alesvara in Bhubaneswar, this is a standard subordinate divinity (avarana devata) usually flanking Mahisamardini on the north side of the shrine exterior. Like most images of Siva at this point in Orissa, the figure is ithyphallic. The Bhairava or fierce nature of the god is implicit in the fangs and warrior's beard and mustache, as well as in the association of the type with the fiercest parsvadevata, Durga killing the buffalo. That side of his nature is. however, mitigated by the beneficent varada mudra and by the rosary, trident, and water jar held in the remaining hands.
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