Formation Of The Vaishnava Pantheon PDF

PANTHEONN THE FORMATION OF THE VAISHNAA The Rig Veda contains five hymns addressed to Vishnu. He is grouped with the sel. The...

PANTHEONN THE FORMATION OF THE VAISHNAA The Rig Veda contains five hymns addressed to Vishnu. He is grouped with the sel. The solar deities and described as powerlul god living in the mountalns. a Vedas tien tion his three great strides whereby he encompassed the universc. Later Vedie texts such as the Tuittiriya Samhita and Shatapatha Brahman connect him with the dwa dwarl (the dwarfis associated with extradordinary cleverness and spiritual atanme) he carth. The history of Vishnutsm tnvolved the gradual coming together of the initaly independent cults of various deities such as Narayana, Vasudeva Kristhna, Shii, and Lakshmi (Jaiswal |19671, 1981). The importance given to Vishnu seems to have been a later development that took place at the sage when the Brahmanization of these cults was established. The details of the historical processes underlyina these assoclations, amalgamations, and hierarchies are not entirely clear. The tet Vaishnava' as an epithet of a worshipper of Vishnu occurs in the later portions of the Mahabharata. The cult of Narayana was one of the important elements eventualy absorbed into Vishnuism. Some scholars lhave suggested that Narayana was onginally a non-Vedic g He is mentioned in the Rig Veda and Shatapatha Brahmana. He is associated with afive day sacrifice called the pancharatra sattra, through the performance of which he is sup- posed to have attained superiority over all beings and identiy with them. This god als scems to have been associated with asceticism The Mahabharata calls him a great yog and identiies him with Vishnu. This text in fact relers to the god more often as Narayana than Vrshnu. One of the impressive early images of Narayana is a colossal image found at Mathura. The worship ol Vasudeva Krishna seems to have originated in the Mathura regon. TheAshtadhyayi explains the word Vasuevaka as one whose object of bhakti is Vasude va. This is the eariest relerence to devotion to Vasudeva, alihough the precise meam- ing ol bhakti in this context is uncertain. Megasthenes states that the Sourasenoi, who lived in the Mathura region, worshipped Herakles, by which he must have meant sudeva Krishna, who was the Indian god bearing the closest resemblance to the Greek * god Herakles. The complex character and varied associations of Vasudeva Krishna suggest that nis mythology consists of an amalgamaion ol originally separate strands and traditions. Ine Chhandogya Upanis/had mentions a sage named Krishna Devakiputra (son ol Devaki), Pur pil ol rishi Ghora Angirasa. In the Mahabharata, Vasudeva Krishna is the ally and advise of the Pandavas. In the Bhagavad Gita, he drives Arjunas chariot, convinces him his dharma to fight the battle, and reveals himself as that brst an avatara (incarnation) ot vis The detailed account ot Krishnas lile story occurs in the Harivamsha, an to the Mahabharata. This narrates Krishnas birth, his life with his foster appenu and Yashoda in Vrindavana, and his conllict with parents Nar his wicked uncle as the Vishnu, Padma, Brahmavaivarta, and s Kamsa. Purans life in Bhagavata provide further details ot KrS Vrindavana. Krishnaa association with Radha came to the fore much 11th-12th centuries. Radha is not mentioned in the later, i 10th century Bhagavata century Gita Govinda of Jayadeva celebrates the lovePurnu the other hand, the 12th of and Krishna. t s p0ssible that the core of the legends that were sudeva Krishna grew around historical figure belongingeventually a associated w to the Vrishni ing u the Maihura area. Vasudeva Krishna was one of five heroes clan, ipped Dy the Vrishnis of the Mathura area-Samkarshana (also known (runcha-vira) worshi as Baladeva or son ol Vasudeva by Rolhini), Vasudeva (son b f of Vasudeva by Devaki), Pradyumna Vasudeva by Rukmini), Samba (son of Vasudeva by Jambavati), and son o Pradyumna). Many "kinship triads' depicting Vasudeva Aniruddha and their sisler Ekanansha, stylistically dated to the earlyKrishna, his brother B centurins havr ns1 f d  Interaction and Inno i nthe Mathura area. 1he relatuve size of the figures shows that Baladeva was initially con dered more important than Krishna. An inseription found at Mora in Mathura district sidere relers to the installation ot images of the five heroes by a woman named Tosha during8 the reign of Shodasa (1Le., the late Ist century tCE-early 1st century ce). Fragmentary sculptures ol two male hgures discovered at the site may represent two of the images mentioned in the insenption. Another image, possibly originally from Mora, inscribed on a door jamb and belonging to the reign of Shodasa, refers to a torana (gateway) and vedika (railing which lormed part of a maha-sthana (large temple) of Vasudeva. The Krishna swifily spread beyond the tact that the worship of Vasudeva Mathura region is indicated by epigraphic evidence. The Besnagar pillar inscription describes to the Shunga court, of Heliodorus, Greek ambassador a as i.e., a bhagavata, worshipper lord Vasudeva Krishna. A 2nd century BCE inscription found at Nagari in Rajasthan men- tions temple ol Samkarshana and a Vasudeva. A lst century BCE inscription from Gosundi in Chittorgarh district of Rajasthan records the construction of a stone enclosure for the place of worship (puja-shila-prakara) in honour of Samkarshana and Balarama by a per- son who is described as a bhagavata and a performer of the ashvamedha sacrifice. In the early centuries CE, there was a dramatic increase in the number and variety of Vaishnava images produced in the Mathura area. Representations of Vasudeva Krishna irethe most numerous, but there are also a large number ol small stone statuettes of VIshu (usually four-armed), Vishnu on garuda, and Vishnu in the form of a partly