|
The Indian Analyst
|
North Indian Inscriptions |
RELIGIOUS HISTORY called nārāḥ; the waters are, indeed, the offspring of Nara ; as they were his first residence (ayana), he is thereby remembered as Nārāyaṇa”. Thus in the verse in question, Nārāyaṇa is identified with Purusha. The composite deity, called Purusha-Nārāyaṇa, however, is known as early as the Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa (XII. 3. 4. 11) which says that Nārāyaṇa placed himself in all the worlds, in all gods, in all the Vēdas and in all the Vital Airs, and that they were placed in him. In fact, we find Purusha-Nārāyaṇa here raised to the dignity of the Supreme Soul. It is therefore no wonder if the Purusha-sūkta itself is attributed to Nārāyaṇa, just as some hymns are to Paramātman, Viśvakarman and so forth. In both the cases the hymns have been ascribed to the deities whose praise they sing. Further, there can be no doubt that it is on account of his being identified with (Purusha)-Nārāyaṇa that Vishṇu himself has become known as Nidrālu. That Nidrālu is another name of Vishṇu is clear from lexicons. And it is worthy of note that it occurs in inscription No. 14 below. Its first verse 11 which praises Vāsudēva and by line 5 of the second fragment which speaks of a temple consecrated to Kṛishṇa. It is thus incontrovertible that Vishṇu of the Gupta period is the Vedic Purusha-Nārāyaṇa and Vāsudēva-Kṛishṇa welded into one. We will revert to this record again shortly. The initial verse of inscription No. 14 below may also be compared with that of inscription No. 39 below which is as follows:
.............................Jayati vibhuś=chatur-bhujaś=chatur-arṇṇava-
âVictorious is the lord, the four-armed (Vishṇu), whose couch is the extensive waters of the
four oceans; who is the sole cause of the continuance, production, and destruction, etc., of the
universe; (and) whose ensign is Garuḍa,” This is the first inscription in which Vishṇu, or,
rather Janārdana, as he has been called in line 9, is described as four-armed. Further, here
also Vishṇu has been identified with Nārāyaṇa, “whose couch is the extensive waters of the
four oceans.” And, lastly, it is worthy of note that Garuḍa is associated with him. This is but
natural, because Vishṇu was originally a form of the sun, and in the Ṛig-Vēda X. 149. 3, mention is made of Savitṛi’s strong-pinioned (suparṇa) Garutman who obeyed his law for ever.
So this association of Garuḍa with Vishṇu is a development from the Ṛigvedic period. Inscription No. 39 below is of the time of Budhagupta and is dated Gupta year 165=484 A.D. It
records the erection of the dhvaja-stambha of the god Janārdana by Mahārāja Mātṛivishṇu
and his younger brother Dhanyavishṇu. Things were different when Tōramāṇa’s Ēraṇ inscription1 came to be engraved on the body of the stone image of Varāha. This happened when
Mātṛivishṇu was dead and Dhanyavishṇu alone alive. That was again in the first year of the
reign of Tōramāṇa, the first ruler of the Hūṇas who had temporarily supplanted the Gupta
supremacy. The opening verse has: “Triumphant is the god, who had the form of a Boar;
who, in the act of lifting up the Earth (out of the ocean), caused the mountains to shake with
the striking of (his) hard snout etc. etc.” Who this god was is made clear in line 7 where
Dhanyavishṇu is represented to have erected the stone temple of the god Nārāyaṇa who has
the form of a Boar. It is the Vājasanēyī-Saṁhitā (37.5) and the Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa (14. 1. 2. 11)
which first speak of Ēmūsha or Boar raising up the Earth at the bidding of Prajāpati. But
it was only in the Gupta period that the Boar was looked upon as an incarnation of Nārāyaṇa
(=Vishṇu). This explains his identification with Gōvinda also, which name occurs in inscription No. 28 below, line 25. In the Śāntiparvan (Chap. 342, verse 68) of the Mahābhārata, Bhagavat 1 CII., Vol. III, 1888, No. 36.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| > |
|
>
|