HINDUISM:
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF LORD ḲṚṢṆA
கி ரு ஷ் ணா, க ண் ண ன்
Man is a rational animal who found it difficult at a point to control some natural events and eventually fell into the submission of nature and personified it with his same rational interpretation. He developed his spiritual substance into an organized orderly system which he called ‘Religion’ from where onwards his inborn quest continues with acceleration to know the Divine.
Therefore his attempt to a lively actualization of ‘God’ brought forth symbolic or iconographical interpretation along with the sculptural and portrayal depiction or exposition of the above. Hinduism has been highly compared with this concept, of which this discussion goes, for the reason that it still has the original attempt of man in personification of his spiritual entity. For the naive view, this many-god religion never fails to give sufficient information or rather description to all its gods through iconography.
Lord
Krishna, one among the many Avatārs of Lord Vishnu who was an emitted prince of
Kamsa was brought up by the leader of a cowherd. He later killed his father with Balarāman his
step- brother and obtained the kingship in Dvārakā. He was a divinized person who met with an
actual death in his last phase of life.
But, however on his insistence, the pastoral community was converted
from Indra worship into Vaisnavism and added to that for his triumphant rule he
was believed to be an Avatār. All his
life was written down and put in art and sculpture describing his nature through
the iconographical explanation. There
many forms of symbolic expression namely, diagrammatical and emblematic,
pictorial, gestural and physical movements, verbal, musical, conjunction and
combination of various modes.
The iconography of Krishnā can be
defined in many ways in accordance to the artist who makes it with the
intention of expressing something. In
that way nature takes a prominent place.
Krishnā is depicted as a child, showing his opened mouth in which the
whole universe is seen. This is connected to an event happened during his
childhood that tries to say that the whole universe was created by Vishnu and
he controls the ‘time’; Lord Shiva destroys the world once the circle is over
whereas Vishnu becomes the cause of re-creation by first bringing forth Brahmā,
the creator god. It also reminds of his
another famous Avatār, Vāmana who
measured the whole three worlds with only three steps (Satapatha Brāhmana xiv,
1,1,6). In another form he is depicted
as a boy who stands on the top of a poly headed snake in water. Water (Āpah)
is an integral reality, therefore, has healing power (Cf. RV x, 137,6;
AV ii,3,6; vi,91,3; SB iii,6,1,7)Purification is their first anthropocosmic
function.
Another point of discussion would be
the human relationship which is mostly the family bonds such as mother and
child and father and child. These portrayals try to explain the relationship or
intimacy between God and man that is done with one depiction showing Yashodā
holding child Krishnā. The mother image is closely bound up with Earth
symbolism, vegetation, agriculture, fertility, the reappearance of life and the
lunar cycle. The image of the child, the subject, or slave again indicate man’s
relationship to God; the image of the ruler (Encyclopaedia Brittanica,
macropaedia, vol. 17, 15th edition, pp 908). Therefore the above expression is found in
that image.
The
next on the topic is the unavoidable part of human life, the sexuality which
also has been used to carry message.
Lord Krishnā is seemed to be a mischievous man in his youth who plays
fool with gopis, the girls of the pastoral community. Some pictures show naked
gopis who are having bath while Krishna refused to give the cloths to them. These try to say the analogy between divine
love and human love. Divine lover is shown playing the flute, surrounded by
adoring maidens and cows. People must be attracted towards god having genuine
love for him as it is shown. Vaisnavite
theology brings forth this idea that we also find in saivism in the formless
form of Shivalingam (Linga-Yoni symbolism) which is the complete power results
in the combination of Shiva and Shakthi and the same was done with Krishna and
Rādhā. Here, the cow is seen in most of
the images and sculptures standing for prosperity because, the cow is
considered a god called Kāmadhēnu that is in Dhēvalokha. The animal form is the
representation of Divine (theriomorphism, or zoomorphism).
Culture also influences the
formation of iconography for the reason that the artist is already influenced
by it. This can be evidently seen in the images of Krishnā in which he is
depicted as a child dances on the snake and so on. The people of the pastoral
community were in fear of fearful animals so that, he is seen as it is said
above and also cow is mostly shown because that was their bread winning job.
Hunters, farmers, shepherds, artisans and merchants and their activities are
represented in religious pictures and appear in verbal symbolism of religion (Encyclopaedia
Brittanica, macropaedia, vol. 17, 15th edition, pp 908).
Conceptual influences are widely
seen in the incorporation of ideas, theories and structured system of thought
into images. The conflict with Indra worship is substituted by Vaisnavite
theological inputs which are shown in the image depicting child Krishna showing
the universe in his mouth. Krishnā as he preaches the Gitā is the best example
for this in which he is shown as the protector and preacher of Dharma giving
instructions to Arjun. It is an example also for the Chrematomorphic motifs
that places holy books or scriptures and objects.
Though
the images and sculptures are apparently normal they have a treasured meaning
with them in their iconography. These religious concepts have been abbreviated
in the iconography of pictures and simplified to be given to the people with a
message to say. Krishanā was a
triumphant king and a good human being whereas the divinization of this King
initiated a new branch of Hinduism called Krishnaism still followed by North
Indians and the same happened with King Rama. Krishna was just a reformer or
rather a new god who changed the Indra-dominated Vedic religion among the
pastoral community into Vaisnavism. His
life is fully narrated in Bhāgavata Purāna but not much in Vedas. All his
images bring some news or specific interpretations with them and all of them
are mostly hybrid motifs. It is the core
of this codification that the people who look at the work god experience is
given. Therefore Krishna’s iconography becomes useful in order to understand
him better.
-An Assignment submitted to REVD. FR. DEVIN COONGHE IVD
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