Indian Antiquary Vol 47

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 147

MAY, 1918)
TRIMORTIS IN BUNDELKHAND
137
his feet and legs should be enclosed or covered up to the knees and he should be dressed in the fashion prevalent in the North (V. 46 ) and that he should be encircled by an Avyanga (V. 47). Accordingly the images of the sun that are found in the temples mentioned above have boots reaching up to the knees, and a girdle round the waist with one end hanging downwards. This last is a Persian feature as we have already seen and the other also must have the same or similar origin. It certainly is not Indian." The Bangaon statue wears top-boots exactly as described above. It is somewhat curious that the booting idea should have been extended to images of Vishnu in a sitting posture. In & village named Madhia in the Panna State I recently saw a figure of Vishņu wearing shoes. This god also happens to be a Trimurti carved in the centre of the door of a ruined temple. The figure is six-handed, unlike the Bangaon Trimûrti which is eighthanded, apparently representing four hands of Vishnu and two of Mahadeva and Brahmâ each. The Madhia Trimurti holds in its left hands, a Trisúla (trident) in one, and a lotus in the second, the third being open, with the thumb bent towards the centre of the palm. The right hands hold a lotus in one, and & Mriga jika (deer symbol) in the second, the third being broken. These symbols show what deities are combined in the Trimûrti, the Trisúla and Mriganka being symbols of Siva, the lotus of Vishnu and the open hand with thumb bent of Brahmâ. In the left corner is carved the figure of a bull and on the right, that of Garuda, but I could not find the Hamsa (Swan ) the conveyance of Brahmâ represented there. This is the central panel on each side of which there is one, separated by figures of gods and goddesses. In the right panel are carved Siva and Parvati and in the left Vishnu and Lakshmi. The intervening figures between the panels consist of two rows of goddesses and gods, the first row representing eight goddesses (Ashtamatarak) five being depicted on the right and three on the left with a figure of Ganesa at the end and the second row eight figures of Vishņu, four on each side of the central panel. Below this there is a second row of panels with Vishņu and Lakshmi placed in the central one. The right side panel has the figures of Brahmå and Brahmâni and the left one of Siva and Pârvatî. The intervening place between the central and side panels is occupied by the Navagrahas, four being represented on the right side and five on the left. This is a most beautiful piece of work executed apparently about the same period as that of Khajurâhâ, the old capital of the Chandellas, now included in the Chhatarpur State.
In Khajurahå itself there is a temple dedicated to a Trimûrti, with an inscription dated A.D. 953-54 But the side heads of that Trimurti are not human. One is leonine and the other porcine. This Trimûrti is named Vaikuntha in the inscription, which is peculiar as a name of a god. I quotes below the invocation, which explains the form of the subsidiary heads which the image bears :
स्थानानेकां वः किरिषरुपसिंहोभवजुषं तदाकारोच्छेयां तनुमसुरमुख्यानजवरातू ।
a f
i norary : : fafara:74:11 "May that Vaikuntha protect you, who, frightening the whole world with his roaring, as boar and as man-lion, slew the three chief Asuras, Kapila and the rest, (who were ) terrible in the world, and who possessed one body, which by the boon of Brahmå enjoyed freedom from fear (and ) could be destroyed ( only) by (Vaikuntha ) having assumed these forms!
This Trimûrti of Khajurâhâ is four-handed and is therefore popularly known as Chaturbhuja, which in the abstract is correct as it was intended to represent Vishņu as the predominant deity, which is apparent from the invocatory salutation recorded at the beginning and end of the inscription referred to above, running as it does “Namo bhagavate Vasudevaya" (Adoration to the Holy Vasudeva). Curiously enough at the
About 35 miles north-east of Damoh aad about 80 miles from Khajuraha. Soe Epigraphia Indica, volume I, page 124.