The Three Gods
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| (Vishnu, 12th century, Pala dynasty) |
These three gods, Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma, are part of something called the Hindu Triumvirate. Vishnu is the preserver, Shiva the destroyer, and Brahma the creator. In which these three gods, work together to keep the world moving.
Whereas Brahma created the universe, and Vishnu preserves it, and lastly Shiva is tasked to destroy the universe, so it can be recreated once again. The Hindus believe Shiva and Brahma, still use their powers of creation and destruction to cleanse the world of its impurities. This first image to the left shows a stele of Vishnu with an interesting triangular top, unlike other steles. Vishnu is in the center with his two attendants at his side, who might be Bhu and Shri. From that, if you look up at the arms and what Vishnu is holding; you can see he carries a mace in his left hand and, a disk in his right hand. While his other two arms which are broken would have held a lotus and a conch. Each arm held something important, to represent his character as a preserver. When you look at his crown to the left and right of it you can see there are celestial garland bearers and musicians, the Vidyadharas and Kinnaras. (smarthistory.org) Along with the other details and elements of this stele, such as the rim of the stele; show just much the Hindus celebrate and admire the god of preservation through such grand detail.
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| (Shiva and Parvati, early 11th century, Western Decan, India) |
Here in this photo, we see Shiva the destroyer, and his wife Parvati. Shiva being the tallest and Parvati being the smaller one. While names have a hidden meaning Paravati means "daughter of the mountain", looking at them both we can the amount of detail put into these bronze statues is immense as there covered in jewelry to show how they dressed. Although they are both strong Shiva is the most powerful of the two, given that he has four arms and Parvati does not. These statues contrast to how these two are usually depicted, as relaxed and naturalistic in other renderings of Shiva and Parvati.
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| (Brahma, c. 1110-1150, Chola dynasty) |
In this final image, we have Brahma the creator, this particular god is well known but not entirely worshiped like the others, Shiva and Vishnu. As in the myth of Shiva as Lingodbhava, Brahma is searching for the top of the linga of fire. Where Brahma lied and said there were flowers towards the top, whereas the linga is endless. Due to that, he was punished by having one of his five heads removed. In this photo, we can only see three heads of the four heads that are remaining. He was also punished by not having any followers, which is why hardly anyone or anyone at all would worship this god. I think it's interesting how this one god of something important known as the Hindu Triumvirate, is treated in such a, way.
The British Museum, "Three Hindu gods," in Smarthistory, March 30, 2020, accessed October 8, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/three-hindu-gods/.
"Religions - Hinduism: Shiva." BBC. BBC, August 24, 2009. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/deities/shiva.shtml/.
Hello David,
ReplyDeleteI thought this was one of the most in depth posts that I have read yet. I absolutely love the detail you went into on each god and truly explaining each gods roles and meanings. I totally agree with you in the fact of how incredible the detail was on each piece, especially Vishnu (your first picture). What a great post David.
The triumvirate is an interesting religious concept. I don’t think it’s purely monotheistic, but I’m not sure it technically counts as polytheism due to the fact that they are all connected in the sense where, while they are three separate deities, they function equally to keep the cycles of life going. Contrasting to the gods in greek mythology: Zeus rules them all, Ares is the god of war, Hades being the God of the underworld, etc. I’m told henotheism is a better definition of the Hindu views, but then it also gets you wondering how many other religions are henotheistic.
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