COSMIC
SLEEP OF VISHNU
K. C. KAMALIAH
If
Nataraja is the Lord of Dance, Vishnu is the Lord of Cosmic Sleep,
who sleeps in the primordial waters of Chaos. By His slumbering wakefulness, He
creates the world through the instrument of Brahma, the Creator who abides in
the lotus, growing from his navel. One of his celebrated names is Ranganatha, meaning also the Lord
of the Stage. He reclines on the coils
of the thousand-hooded serpent, Ananta (Endless) known also as Sesha
(Remainder). As is Chidambarm to Nataraja, Srirangam is to Ranganatha, and the term Koil (Temple)
pertains only to Chidambaram for the votaries of Siva and exclusively to
Srirangam for worshippers of Vishnu. “The wise say that the abode of Vishnu is Vaikuntam, Venkatam and
Malirum-solai, the hill-resort”.1 So runs one of the Four
Thousand Sacred Hymns. Whereas Vaikuntam is the heavenly home of Vishnu, the others are the holy spots where temples are
dedicated to the Lord, popularly known also as Tirupati and Alagarkoil. In his
heavenly abode of Vaikuntam, Vishnu in
his Sishasayanam–reclining
on Sesha, the serpent, whose coils
are floating in the Milky-sea, is the cosmogonic Supreme Lord, the
protector of the universe. “It was Narayana who created the Four-Faced Lord
(Brahma) and the Four-Faced Lord of his own will created Sankara”. 2 Thus runs another
hymn from the Sacred Four Thousand. Narayana, hence, is the Supreme Lord
within whose purview are
creation, protection and destruction, the three acts of God. Nataraja
sculptured in stone and bronze kindled
the lamp of devotion in the
minds of art-lovers and made them stand in admiration and awe at its symbolism,
so much so, Ananda Coomaraswamy wrote that “it is not strange that the figure
of Nataraja has commended the adoration of so many generations past, familiar
with all scepticisms, expert in tracing all beliefs to primitive superstitions,
explorers of the infinitely great and infinitely small, we are worshippers of
Nataraja still”. 3 The cosmic sleep of Vishnu and the symbology
underlying the Seshasayanam done in relief and sculptured in stone in the north and south in
India is equally an absorbing subject for study, understanding and admiration. We get an insight into the seemingly innocuous
religious representation, pregnant with meaning and speaking a language at once
gripping and unfolding a philosophy, so to say.
Fifth
century A. D. was an age of extensive Hindu building. According to Helen
Gardner, the basic forms elaborated in all later Hindu temples had already been
established by the end of the fifth century A. D. when a Vishnu temple was
built at Deogarh in North Central India. All later developments of the Hindu
temple were no more than elaborations upon the principles embodied in Deogarh.
Agreement apart with the views of this learned art critic, our interest centres
around a panel in the south wall of a marvellous representation of Vishnu
recumbent on the serpent Endless (Vishnu Anantasayan) of the temple
facing west. Though from the view-point of the art-lover, this panel of Seshasayanam
in Deogarh temple was a unique portrayal of the theme, it could not be said to
be the earliest as in the Silappadhikaram, the Epic of the Anklet of the
second century A. D., two postures of the Lord Vishnu, i.e., the reclining
posture in Srirangam and the standing posture in Tirupati mentioned. The
description of a pilgrim as given in the epic runs as under:
“I
am a native of Mankadu, in the region of Kudamalai (the western hills). I came
to satisfy my heart’s desire, to see with my own eyes, the glory of Vishnu,
whom many worship with prayer as He reposes with Lakshmi in his breast on the
couch of the thousand-hooded serpent in the temple of Turutti putting out on
the widening waves of the Kaveri, even as the blue clouds repose supine on the
slopes of the lofty golden mountain (Meru). I also came to see the beauty of
the red-eyed Lord, holding in his beautiful lotus hands, the discus which is
death to his enemies, and also the milk-white conch; (to see Him) wearing a
garland of tender flowers on His breast, and draped in Golden flowers and
dwelling on the topmost crest of the tall and lofty hill named venkatam with
innumerable waterfalls, standing like a cloud in its natural hue, adorned with
a rainbow and attired with lightning, in the midst of a place both sides of
which are illumined by the spreading rays or the sun and the moon”. 4
For
a study in depth of the symbolism of the Seshasayan of Vishnu a preliminary
survey of the ten incarnations of the same Lord may be useful. In his first
incarnation, He took the form of fish, matsya, and saved one of the
progenitors of the human race, Manu. He helped churning the ocean of Milk by
taking the form of the tortoise, kurma, in his second incarnation. In
his incarnation as boar, varaha, the third one he rescued the earth from
being drowned by the sea. He destroyed Hiranyakasipu by taking the incarnation
of Narasimha, Man-lion. His fifth incarnation was that of dwarf, taking
his three strides as Trivikrama and subduing the Demon King, Bali. His other
incarnations were Parasurama, Rama, Krishna and Gautama Buddha. His tenth
incarnation will synchronise with the end of the Dark Age, Kaliyuga, when as
Kalki he will ride a white horse with sword in hand. An Ellora sculpture
portrays with a dramatic fineness Narasimha, the Man-lion incarnation. In the
rock sculpture at Udayagiri assigned to the 5th century A. D., the Boar
incarnation of Vishnu has been depicted rescuing the earth from the cosmic sea.
The Lord taking the three strides in his incarnation as Trivikrama was a much
sought after theme for the artist and the relief and workmanship has been
executed with skill, vigour and imagination in the Varaha cave at Mamallapuram.
This rock cut relief shows Vishnu in his three steps bringing the universe
under his hegemony. His right foot, goes deep down in the nether world
subjugating the demons; he raises his left foot which ransacks the universe.
The Lord measuring the universe in three strides supports the universe too. He
is shown to wield the bow, the shield and the conch on the left and the sword,
the mace and the discus on the right. Havell describes this relief of Vishnu
from Mamallapuram supporting the universe as “one of the most impressive and
powerful of the Mamallapuram group of sculptures”, adding that “the bold
generalisation of execution is quite free from the over-elaboration from which
later Indian sculpture sometimes suffers.” 5 The bow and the conch
symbolise the organs of senses and the rudimentary unconscious elements. The
arrows emanating from the bow represent the faculties of action and perception.
The power of the intellect is symbolised by the mace and the discus represent
the mind flying faster than the wind.
Vishnu came into the
world taking many incarnations, avatars, both as man and animal to help
mankind, when virtue subsides and vice prevails. But the immaculate Lord, the
very personification of strength, knowledge and everything good in the universe
has been understood to be sleeping in the sea of Milk on his Serpentbed with
its infinite coils, served by his divine consort, Lakshmi, the Goddess of
prosperity and ail that is beauty, tenderness and love and known also Padmasini,
the Goddess of the Lotus. She is the sakti or energy of her Lord.
She represents the pomp, the luxuriance or the world, the Lord’s glory. Her
sitting at the feet symbolises the sphere of ignorance, for ignorance is the
mother of creation in the world. Vishnu’s sleep is described as yoga-nidra, slumbering
wakefulness and it is the sleep without its darkness, it is the sleep not of
ignorance and dulness, but a sleep of light, a knowing sleep, ari tuyil, a
sleepless sleep, tuyila-t-tuyil. He slumbers on Ananta–Endless
also called Sesha–Remainder, for the Endless Remainder–Ananta
Sesha only remains in the interval, pralaya, between the dissolution
of the world and its new creation. Sesha is the consciousness
transcending time and space and causality. Sesha remains when all else
perishes. No death can devour him for he is infinite and eternal. Sesha in
correlation to Vishnu is brought out forcefully in the following:
“From morn to eve and
from eve to dewy morn,
That which envelops all
the fourteen worlds,
The five elements, and
ever shines in all;
During the sleep in
which all being lost;
That which remains
unlost, that consciousness,
Is called the I or Self
and Sesha forms;
Its inner light is
Vishnu great, the Lord,
The love, the light, the
sat, the bliss and strength”. 6
Both the animal and the
vegetable kingdoms are represented in Seshasayanam by the serpent and the
lotus. It is a lying posture from one end of the universe to the other
symbolised as from head to foot. The Vishnu Purana explains the
symbolism of Seshasayanam and the ornaments the Lord wears. There is the kaustuba
gem adorning His breast which symbolises the pure and everlasting soul of
the world. The mace represents the intellect which faculty protects one against
the arrows in the war of life. His necklace, vaijayanti, is composed of
the five precious gems-pearl, ruby, emerald, sapphire and diamond symbolising
the five elements. The Sri-vatsa mark on the forehead is symbolic of the
chief principle of things–Pradhana. The conch-shell in one of his upper hands
represents creation–due to the vibration caused by the sounding of the same.
The discus, chakra, is symbolic of the mind speedier than the winds and
swifter than lightning. The Lord’s colour is “the deep transparent blue pure as
crystal of the Himalayan sky when it has been swept by the monsoon storms.”
7 As he is the Lord of the firmament and the many universes beyond and
far beyond, verily he is blue and the holy eagle, a denizen or the sky is his
vehicle. The Lord is loftier than the universe and minuter than the atom.
Poikai Alwar places at His feet with a shining discus his garland of words by
lighting the lamp of sun with the universe as the container and the oceans
as the feeding ghee.8 More subtle is the description by Bhutattalvar
who lit the lamp of wisdom with love as the container, devotion as the feeding
oil and the mind as the wick.9 Peryalwar saw the Lord thus doing
away with metaphor. “Spied I prosperity, the lovely form, the shining colour
dazzling as the sun; the tower of strength that is the golden discus; the
winding zigzag-lined conch-shell in hand. In my Lord of the ocean-hue, to-day.”
10
Significant as is the
motif of Seshasayanam in religious art, there have not been many creations as
has been the case with Nataraja sculptures in stone and bronze and in relief
too produced ad infinitum from the time the Ananda Tandava model got
standardised and being cast even today. The reasons are not far to seek. Being
a lying posture, Seshasayanam requires considerable horizontal space and the
procession deities being bronze ones, they are always cast in vertical
postures. It is too cumbersome to chisel horizontal postures as Seshasayanam in
monolithic pillars, as certain inevitable important details cannot be avoided
such as Brahma sitting in the blooming lotus the stem of which sprouts out of
the navel of Vishnu. The seven-hooded serpent, the discus and the conch-shell
in the upper hands of the Lord pose a problem to the artisan. It was perhaps
due to this that Seshasayanam as an object of worship has been invariably done
in relief. The above observation must not be taken to mean that Seshasayanam as
an object of worship was not created at all. Srirangam temple, the holiest of
temples for Srivaishnavites in South India as is Benares for Saivites
throughout India, has in the holy of holies only the Seshasayanam of Lord
Ranganatha. Another important temple in South India where, in the sanctum
sanctorum this posture of Vishnu finds a place is the Sri Padmanabhaswamy
temple in Trivandrum.
It would be of advantage
to have a close look at the panel of Vishnu Seshasayanam in the southern wall
of the Gupta temple of Vishnu at Deogarh built in the 5th century A. D. The
walls are solid ones except that of the entrance and in the south wall is the
sculptured panel like a false doorway framed on the wall. The panel is in three
parts, the central one depicting Vishnu reclining on the coils of Ananta whose
seven hoods form a halo above the crowned head of the Lord. Lakshmi, sitting at
his feet, is massaging his right leg with her left hand, while her right hand
holds His left foot. From out of his navel grows the lotus stem and in the
upper panel is the lotus bloom in which Brahma is seated. To Brahma’s left is
Siva with His Consort, Uma, soaring in their bull. To the right of Brahma is
Indra in his Airavata and Karthikeya in his peacock. The five Pandava brothers
with their common wife Draupadi are found in the base. The central panel which
is the main one measures 4ft. 11 inches by 3 ft. 10 inches. The recumbent
Vishnu’s hands are without attributes lying parallel to His main body in ease
and poise. The Lord is lying in a half-sleepy mood, meditative and graceful.
The essential requirements of the Lord’s sojourn in the serpent-bed have all
been met. Ignoring the base where the artist inserted the Pandava brothers and
their wife to fill in space, the central panel primarily and the upper one
secondarily merit examination and scrutiny. The body of the Lord must come in
contact with the coils of Ananta as he symbolises the universal living waters
and supports the human form of the divine sleeper Vishnu. Heinrich Zimmer says:
“Ananta is the abyssal water remaining at the bottom of the universe as its
primary life force, energy and substance feeding all. Ultimately Ananta is
identical with Vishnu himself, who in human form is seen recumbent on his
coils.” He explains further: “At the beginning of time (according to the myth
of the flowering of the universe) when the waters are to bring forth forms
anew, there rises from the navel of Vishnu, the golden bud of the lotus which
expands. This cosmic flower is a transformation of the portion of the substance
eternally contained within the God’s gigantic body at the time of the
dissolution. It has now reappeared to begin its cycle anew; and it will live
again its perennial course. This radiant lotus of the world is Padma, the sakti
or divine energy of slumbering Vishnu. She is the awakening of his
substance in dream”.11 Vishnu is the source of all creation, as
Brahma himself was born of him and besides Himself being the protector, that
destruction also is done at His bidding is portrayed by the presence of Siva
and Parvati in the upper panel. This panel is important not only because of its
antiquity but also for its grace, beauty, rhythm, elegance and melody, mute and
at the same time eloquent, exhibiting a symbolic theme. This is a magnificent,
impressive piece depicting a well-known theme but done with a rare excellence.
In the Prince of Wales Museum at Bombay, there is a Vishnu Seshasayi from the
ceiling panel of the hall of the Haccappya Gudi, Aihole assigned to the
7th century A. D. But the most famous and beloved of the connaisseurs of art is
the rock cut relief of Vishnu Anantasayana on the wall of the Mahishamardani
cave in Mamallapuram which was a middle seventh century creation. Stella
Kramrish is all admiration for this work of art and Narayana-Vishnu is in sleep
on Ananta as at Deogarh and Aihole but “neither of which is equal in conception
and quality to this relief, and the mighty figures of the demons, Madhu and
Kaitabha brandish their weapons. The small figure of his consort who salutes
the good, and or the personified weapons, moving and flying into action,
enhance the calm and tension of the scene”.12 Lakshmi or Sri, the
Goddess of prosperity and affluence and arising from the ocean or milk when
churned, is the theme of another relief in Mamallapuram. Lakshmi, arising in
all her splendour and charm, is thrilled at the sight of radiant Vishnu. This
is a piece, with not much of ritualism in it, appealing for its freshness and
creative vigour. No major role was assigned to Mother Goddess by the Aryans in
their system, because of their anti-female bias. But the same had to undergo a
change, after their contact with the pre-Aryan heritage. Zimmer has assessed
“there was a gradual return to power of Goddesses in the later religion with
their restoration and ideals. These had survived among the masses, and they
entered the Brahmanical sphere gradually but relentlessly when the waves of the
Aryan immigration were absorbed by the races of the autochthonous civilisation.
Goddesses, thereafter, remain predominant in India”.13 In a
Seshasayana motif, Lakshmi is an inevitable must, as are the serpent and its
coils and Brahma. In the later centuries, Lakshmi was given a pride of place,
so much so Ramanuja’s school of Vaishnavism is called Srivaishnavism. Sri or
Lakshmi, as expressed in Saranagati Gadya, the prose-poem of Ramanuja,
is the very embodiment of Divine Grace who mediates between the contrite soul
on the one side and the perfect Supreme Being on the other. She tops the list
of teachers–Guruparampara, being the first of teachers. 14
Whatever be the posture
of Narayana, the upper two hands hold the discus and the conch-shell. These two
are as symbolic as the fine and the drum in the hand of Nataraja. The chakra
or wheel in Indian art occupies a conspicuous place. The wheel of virtue-Dhama
Chakra of the Buddhist art–has been recognised as the national emblem in
independent India. Of all the weapons and ornaments which the Lord wields or
wears, the discus is the most popular both among the well-versed scholars and
the ignorant and illeterate folk. The conch is the Lord’s Bugle, by the
sound waves of which the universe is created, as the beats of the kettle drum
of Nataraja. The discus has a philosophy enshrined in it and it is coeval with
that of Narayana who handles it. The discus is as important as its wielder and
is being worshipped as Vishnu himself. Vishnu is the midday sun from the time
it sets in the west and goes below the horizon, which is Siva till it rises in
the east making the lotus blossom, which is Brahma. “Vishnu, the principle of
equilibrium is the sun at work standing between Brahma and Siva as mediator”.15
Seshasayana Vishnu captivated the minds of artists for several centuries in
India, more so for the symbology enshrined in it. There have been sculptors who
had drunk deep in the lore of the Puranas and it is learnt from the Avantisundarikatha
that the Sthalasayana Seshasayanam of Vishnu in the shore temple at
Mamallapuram was repaired by one Lalitalaya during the early Pal1ava period.16
Seshasayanam as an art motif attracted the attention of art lovers and critics
the world over surcharged in it with symbols stimulating one to think.
Vishnupurana says:
“The Supreme Eternal
Hari is time, with its divisions of seconds, minutes, days, months, seasons and
years. He is the seven worlds. He is First born before all the first-born; the
supporter of all beings, himself self-sustained; whose shape is all visible
things; who is without shape or form. I am Hari. All that I behold is Hari.
Cause and effect are from none other than Him. The man who knows these truths
shall never experience the afflictions of world by existence”. 17
Visual arts have been
identified as “the selective communication of human experience in tangible
forms existing as matter in space.” Not much benefit will accrue to a student
of art if he restricts his scope only to speak, to read and to write. He should
develop the technique of how to see a work of art, if his study is to be fruitful
and fascinating. Realism in art is a misnomer. Whatever be the perfection
attained in works of art: they are but visual representations of what are real.
The question gets complicated in case of religious or mythological art, as the
artist renders something imaginary and supernatural into something visible and
understandable Seshasayanam is one such.
1 Ramanuja Noorrantaati–Tiruvarankattamutanaar
2 Naankam Tiruvantaati–Tirumalisai Aalvaar
3 The Dance of Shiva–Ananda Coomaraswamy
4 Silappadhikaaram Katukaan Kaatai–V. R. Ramachandra
Dikshitar’s translation
5 The Art Heritage of India–E. B.
Havell
6 Rambles in Vedanta–B. R. Rajam Iyer
7 The Art Heritage of India–E. B. Havell
8 Mutal Tiruvantaati–Poykai Aalvaar
9 Irantaam Tiruvantaati–Bhootattaalvaar
10 Munram Tiruvantaati–Peyaalvar
11 The Art of Indian Asia–Heinrich Zimmer
12 The Art of India through the Ages–Stella Kramrish
13 The Art of Indian Asia–Heinrich Zimmer
14 Ramanuja’s Teachings in His Own Words–M. Yamunacharya
15 The Art Heritage of India–E. B. Havell
16 Indian Sculpture–C. Sivaramamurti
17 Rambles in Vedanta–B. R. Rajam Iyer