Jignasa Journal Of History Of Ideas And Culture Part 02

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

Page 84

300 / Jijasa
other iconographic canons, they have been dealt with elaborately along with their attributes. The rigid formalization of the images can be discerned in Rajasthan at the Sāsa temple situated at Nāgdā, Udaipur District dated around AD 1093, but additional to that the impact of the Tantricism due to which the construction of the Mandalas can be noticed near the entrance, where the pañccavyūha vrttākāra is made with the Brahma in the centre and other gods around it, and further also the representation of the other images including mātrkās are sculpted."
Background Politics of the Feminine The Gurjara-Pratihāras (who reigned from approximately AD 725-950) were an important early medieval period ruling dynasty, and during the reigns of Vatsrāja, Nagabhatta II and Mihirabhoja 1, the empire had expanded to such great expanse in northern India that it was comparable to the Gupta empire. The prominent areas of their patronage in Rajasthan were Osian (District Jodhpur, period between AD 750-825 saw the construction of fourteen temples), Jagat (Udaipur, tenth century Ambikā temple - Ambikā, the apsarās and the Mahişāsuramardini images are highly ornamental), Abāneri (District Jaipur, where the ardhanārīśvara image is technically considered to be excellent), Candravati (District Jhalawar), Jhālarapātana and Cittaudagadha. Their religious tolerance discerned in the establishment of various Jaina and Buddhist temples, and is further noticeable in the construction of the late-eighth century Jaina temple at Osiän as well as the Brāhmana temples. The Osiän Harihara temple number one has the representation of the various forms of sakti as mātrkās, Mahişāsuramardini. Lakşmi, Gajalakṣmi, and Srngāra-Durgā." The Jaina temple at Osiān evidences the sculptural tradition of the Jaina Mahāvidyās according to the treatise of Bappabhetti-sūri's (Nāgabhatta's contemporary) Caturvimsatikā of about eighth century, in the depiction of Rohiņi. Vajraśrókhalā, Vajrānkusā, Apraticakrā, Kāli, Mahākāli, Gauri, Vairotyā, Acchuptā and Mahāmānasi which are some of the prominent ones. The women/female images underline the projected femininity, through the depiction of their bodies emoting palpable sensuality interred in the Ambikā and apsarās images at Jagat, where there is an absence of the replication of the female subjects and even their hair styles and ornaments are found varied. The continuity of the Gupta feature of showing the makaravāhini Gangā and the kūrmavāhini Yamunā is maintained and is found present in the Gurjara-Pratihāra sculptural tradition. These deities in addition to Sarasvati, Urvasi or Menakā have been viewed as the members of the vast cosmogony so vital and central to Indian thought, where from the simplest tribal to the most sophisticated Indian" are found venerating water in some form or the other, as an attempt was made to understand the myths of water. The descent of Gangā from the heavens specially, is seen as an evolution through centuries in the form of an elaborate, ecologically charged myth. But behind the representation of the idolatry divine feminine phenomenon what were the historical approaches to the views on the women in general?
The answer to the above lies somewhere between frequently unearthed, and explored Brahaminical textual traditions, and the still awaiting regional textual traditions, and yet also partly evidenced in the readings on the cultural life's 'social life' element during the Gurjara-Pratihāra period which has been considered to be marked with a strange phenomenon, unique in the socio-religious structure where the Hindu society was on its trial" due to the frequent Arab invasions. Thus the social structure was felt to be under threat, and through the preventive measures of reclamation of the Hindus which emerged as a challenge to the earlier Smrtikāras, and the need was felt for a śāstric textual