Setubandha

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

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INTRODUCTION
It is noteworthy that Rāma is presented in the Setubandha not as an incarnation of Vişņu, but as Vişņu himself, the latter's incarnations and functions being likewise attributed to him. The idea is clearly put forward in Brahma's address to Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa 6. 105. 12 ff.; and Pravarasena has no doubt been influenced by the Rāmāyaṇa in his identification of Rāma with Vişņu. This is particularly in evidence in the Ocean's address to Rāma in Setu 6.10 ff. Besides, Gangā, the famous Visnupadı, is described as having issued from the feet of Rāma, which are designated as 'the feet of Hari' (6.8). The ocean is said to have served as Rāma's couch fat another epoch', and Lakşmi mentioned as his 'consort at the epoch of universal destruction' (2.38). Rāma is here identified with Vişņu reposing on the all-pervading ocean for the purpose of recreating the world after its total destruction, as related in the Vişnupurāņa I. 2.60 and other texts. Further, in Setu 11.89,96 Rāma is assumed to be the Supreme Being, and called the primal support of the three worlds (tihuanamālāhāra), with which may be compared Vişnupurāna II. 13.2 (vişnvadhāram tatha caitat trailokyam samavasthitam). The emphasis with which Pravarasena glorifies Rāma in the Setubandha might indicate that he was influenced by the cult of Rāma at the familiar site of Rāmagiri.
The Setubandha throws further light on the religious tendencies of Pravarasena. As we have seen, he represents Rāma as Vişņu. Accordingly he devotes the first four of the invocatory verses of the Setubandha to Vişņu (1.1-4), but reserves the remaining four for the glorification of Siva in the forms of Ardhapārīśvara and Națarāja. This is not surprising, as several of Pravarasena's inscriptions describe him as parama. mahesvara or devoted worshipper of Siva. As a matter of fact, the emotional fervour of the verses (1.5,7,8) in which