ICONOGRAPHY
Main Attractions: Temples Of Bhubaneswar
Based On Religious Beliefs
At Bhubaneswar, as in other parts of India,
architecture and art are intimately associated with religion.
Consequently, the temples form the most illuminating commentary on the
religion and religious practices of the people, sectarian rivalry, spirit
of reconciliation and rapproachment between rival sects and
cult-syncretism of the different ages.
To the student of iconography, the temples are of absorbing interest, as
the images of the divinities thereon throw interesting sidelight on the
gradual changes in the iconographic features of the images, leading to the
fabrication of the myths necessitated for the explanation of such
transformations.
Thus, no less than eight different forms of Kartikeya in his status of
the Parsva -Devata have been recognized so far: beginning with a two-armed
image with only a spear or 'matulunga' (citron) as the attribute, the form
crystallized into a four-armed one with the two left hands touching a cock
and one of the right carrying a spear. Most of these forms went back to
the early formative period, when iconographic concepts were still in a
fluid stave, resulting in considerable oscillation in representations.
Again,
in the early temples the figure of 'Ketu', the ninth planet, does not
appear among the group of 'grahas' (planets) on the architrave above the
doorway, proving thereby that at Bhubaneswar
the original practice was the representation of eight grahas and the
introduction of Ketu as the ninth one on the architrave was of later
origin.
By the time the
Muktesvara
temple was built the convention of 'Navagrahas' (nine planets) was
built the convention of Navagrahas (nine planets) was well established.
Further, the eight 'dikpalas' (guardians of eight quarters), conforming to
the stereotyped list of later mythology, are not traceable in the deuls of
the early group, but are represented in their proper quarters on the lower
jangha of the deul of the later temples like the
Rajarani
,
Lingaraja
,
Brahmesvara
and
Meghesvara
.
A further development in the pantheon is noticeable in still later
temples like the
Ananta-Vasudeva
,
Sari
Deul ,
Chitrakarini
,
Yamesvara
and Varunesvara, where the female counterparts of the dikpalas made their
appearance in the niches of the upper jangha.
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