Jignasa Journal Of History Of Ideas And Culture Part 01

Author(s): Vibha Upadhyaya and Others
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

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Vākātaka Historiography as seen in the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century
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there is some evidence that important religious groups migrated from Vatsagulma to
the eastern kingdom.55 Secondly, Bakker endeavours to utilize textual and archaeological sources in combination as far as possible. Explaining his view he states:
For now more than half a century, scholars of the history of Western art have become familiar with the idea that visual art is embedded in a social and cultural context which imbues it with meaning and as such may be viewed as a source which generates knowledge concerning this context: this again may result in a better understanding of the artefact itself. This synthetic method of investigation, known under the name of 'iconology', has proved to be of great value in the research of the history of culture. Iconology thus defined is a branch of cultural and applied to religious material-of religious history; it is the counterpart of philology, which contributes to the same by taking textual material as its main object of study. In order to understand the contextpolitical, cultural, religious-the iconologist assimilates the results of philological research and utilizes them in his understanding of the visual material, which again may serve as an important source for the historiography. Since the present study focuses on this visual material as far as it belongs to the Hindu fold-brought together for the first time in the catalogue of Part II - and the understanding thereof, derived from studying its historic context, is again employed in Part I as an important source for this context.
the book carries the subtitle As Essay in Hindu Iconology.56 Elaborating his approach Bakker concludes thus:
From textual, i.e., epigraphical, evidence we know that Pravarasena, who confessed to be a Māheśvara, had a large temple complex built, which he used as an official state sanctuary, the Prararcśvaradorakulasthāna. This was probably not a linga temple, since the archaeology of the Vākātaka realm proves that these kings were not linga worshippers, moreover this is in conformity with the reluctance to accept linga worship which we note in the Sanskrit literature of the brahmanical elite of this period. The inference that the Mansar image was the idol of the Pravarcśvara Temple and consequently that this temple was situated in Mansar, appears logical. Charters issued by this king also tell us that, halfway through his reign, when his dominant mother was growing older, he decided either to rename the old residence Nandivardhana after himself or to build a new one. Pravarapura. The evidence of the Mansar Siva and its connection with the political context of its time would make it appear plausible that Pravarasena II built his new palace in the vicinity of this state sanctuary, i.e., a little to the west of Rāmagiri and Nandivardhana. It may have sealed the process in which the king broke away from his mother and her Bhāgavata milieu. The Mansar Siva is thus an important piece of evidence in the reconstruction of the political and religious reality of the time. What does this reality contribute to our understanding of the image ? It could explain why this figure, in the words of Johanna Williams, has no 'exact parallel in iconography. It represents a Sira who appears to be more domesticated. showing a benign smile and offering life to his devotees, whereas wild traits, such as the erect phallus, third eye and weapons are absent. One could sense here the influence
that the Bhāgavata environment still held over the Māheśvara faith of the king. In accordance with his line of examination Bakker evaluates all the available material concerning the cultural history of the Vākātakas in his book. In order to facilitate his research and to place the