Mahavira and his Teaching

Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti

Page 391

380
KLAUS BRUHN
and it was under the circumstances not possible to find true relatives of our Rşi. Leaving aside Sani, the closest parallel found was an image lying amongst the debris of Budhi Chanderi (Fig. 8, piece to the left; for the location of the site refer to Deogarh Fig. 390). Here a seated Saiva ascetic is shown together with an attendant figure appearing on his proper left. However, the legs are not crossed in the true sense, and the hands are badly damaged. Probably the raised right hand of the attendant figure carried a fly-whisk or cámara. On the other hand, the general arrangement of the two figures is strongly reminiscent of our three images with Pārsva and the Rşi.
IV. “Heraldic” Figures:
In Indian art, the main figure of an image is very often surrounded by other figures of smaller size, which shall be designated as "subsidiary figures" even though they may have the same rank as the central figure (from the point of view of their meaning). In most cases, some of these figures have names and can be identified. The others remain anonymous. If these anonymous figures are not purely decortive in character they may be interpreted by reference to an apparent or assumed function. The two following sentences demonstrate the character of modern interpretations: "Indeed, the emotion with which the god and his goddess are gazing at each other affects all the figures, both human and divine, privileged to behold the spectacle. Not only the donors and chowry bearers, but the hovering swarm of Siva's hosts, the heavenly musicians, are filled with exalted bliss." For the ancient iconographic texts the problems of comprehensive and rational descriptions and interpretations hardly existed. The authors concentrated on figures with a name, and even these were mainly described, references to their connection with the main figure being not the rule. The standard phrase used is "kuryāt” or “kārayet” which simply indicates that the artist is expected to represent such and such a figure.
Number and character of the subsidiary figures depend partly on the style of the image, partly on the iconographic section.