The plaque shows Vishnu, four-armed, seated on Garuda, in flying attitude. The panel having been damaged, the two right arms of Vishnu and the right wing of his vehicle, Garuda, are broken away. In the upper left hand Vishnu holds his Sarnga bow and AC in the lower left the Panchajanya conch (the presence of bow and conch in Vishnu figures is a rare combination and significance as we shall presently see in the course of our discussion). On the left wing of Garuda which is depicted as outstretched is perched a small figure, probably Vishnu’s attendant, who also imitating his master is shown in the act of discharging arrows. The whole situation shows a tense warlike situation.
Dr.
Pal describes the plaque as follows:
“Apparently,
the god is here engaged in battle accompanied by one or more attendants or
personified attributes. There is however, no way to determine who the
adversary is.
Dr.
Pal’s broad idea (that Vishnu is here depicted in a combative mood) is
correct though he did not proceed to identify the particular battle scene
it
The
panel, n my opinion, represents the story of Vishnu’s fight with the
Rakshasas led by Malyavan, Mali and Sumali as narrated in the Uttarkanda
of the Ramayana (Cantoes
VI-VIII). The story is as follows:
There
was a powerful Rakshasa, called Sukesa, who was a great favourite of Siva.
Sukesa had three sons called Malyavan, Mali and Sumali. Proud of the boons
they received from Brahma and Siva, they became insolent and began to
harass the gods. To seek redress, the latter came to Siva and sought his
refuge. Because of his soft feelings towards Sukesa, Siva expressed his
inability to take any stern action against his (Sukesa’s) sons and
directed them (the gods) to go to Vishnu to seek his protection.
The
gods, as directed by Siva, came to Vishnu eulogised his greatness and
sought his protection against the atrocities of Malayavan, Mali and Sumali
and their Rakshasa followers.
Vishnu,
pleased with the prayers of the gods, assured them that he would soon make
short work of the Rakshasas. The gods then left for their respective
abodes.
Having
come to know of Vishnu’s assurance to the gods, Malyavan, Mali and
Sumali flew into rage and summoned their forces to attack the gods. The
Rakshasa
troops moved under Mali’s leadership. Informed of the movement of the
Rakshasas, Vishnu also became ready to fight with them. He put on his
celestial armour shining like the sun, equipped him-self with a pair of
quivers full of arrows and also his other weapons, the conch, the discus,
the mace, the sarnga bow and the sword. And then mounting on his
beautifully feathered vehicle, the Garuda, he set out to destroy the
Rakshasas.
A
grim battle ensued between Vishnu and the Rakshasas. With the blast of his
wings, Garuda shook the army of the ogres, brought down their banners and
displaced their weapons.
The
Rakshasas in their hundreds surrounded Narayana-Vishnu and afflicted him
with volleys of missiles. To foil their efforts, Vishnu discharged sharp
arrows on them from his Sarnga bow whose strings he pulled to the extreme
length.
Dispersing
the Rakshasas by his arrows, Vishnu blew his great conch Panchajanya, the
sound of which shook the three worlds and struck terror into the heart of
the Rakshasas. Pierced by Vishnu’s darts, the Rakshasas fell in hundreds
and thousands on the battlefield. The sound of the Panchajanya and the
twang of his bow drowned the cries of the Rakshasas. At the end, Vishnu
cut off the head of Mali with his chakra.
Seized with fear, Malyavan and Sumali, with the remnants of their
forces fled towards Lanka.
A
close comparison of the details of the plaque with the Ramayanic story as
noted above, shows beyond doubt that the artist sought to depict on the
plaque Vishnu’s fight with Malyavan, Mali and Sumali and their troops.
There is hardly any other story or occasion when Vishnu used his Sarnga
bow and also sounded his Panchajanya conch. Further, the outstretched wing
of Garuda points to the agonising or shaking of Rakshasa-forces by the
blast of his wings, as narrated in the story. There is however, one lacuna
that the Rakshasa forces are not delineated in this plaque. There may be
two reasons for this. Firstly, the Ramayana story was so well known in the
Bhitargaon area (as is evident from the fact that the Bhitargaon brick
temple contained many Ramayana panels most of which are now lost that it
was not necessary to accommodate all the minor details of the story.
Secondly the Gupta art was more often than not suggestive. The beauty of
Indian art lie in suggestiveness and the present panel is a fine example
of that quality, in which the spirit of the theme was sought to be brought
out with as few details as possible.
The
panel is the earliest representation of the theme in art. The story of
Vishnu’s fight with the Rakshasas occurs, as we have noted, in the
Uttara- kanda of the Ramayana. The
Balakanda and the Uttarakanda are
considered to be later additions to the main body of the Ramayana.
Though
there is a lot of controversy as to the date of composition of the whole
Ramayana, it is generally held that the Ramayana in its present form
including both Bala and Uttara Kandas came into existence by the early
part of the third century. The above panel shows that the Uttarakanda
became widely popular in the society by the fourth-fifth century.
