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Artha And Arthasastra in the Puranic Iconography And Their Symbological Implications [pauranikartha- arthasastrayoh varnanam pratikatmakata ca] / By Shri Om Prakash; Research Fellow, Allahabad University, Allahabad / 290-296

[lekhe'smin sivalingapuranayorullikhitadhanadhyaksakuberasya svarupa pratikrti (pratima ) nirmana varnanakrame'ntarnihitavicara sraviskrta, arthasastradrstya''- locitasca santi | kubera arthasya arthasastrasya va murtimattam, prakkalikayorati- prasiddhayoretayoradhyatmikavicarayoh samyaktaya pratikatvena pratinidhitvena va sthaniyatam ca yata iti sayuktikam pratipaditam vartate | parampara'pi vartata eva yat kubera arthapati, arthasastrasya devata dhanapatiriti | sa hi annadata, ksetrapala ityapi harikesasya ( kuberasya ) kasyam tapascaranat prasannena sivena varapradanatsamsadhyate | vaidikavanmaye bahudha yajnesah kubero manujatvenaiva varnyate na tu devatvena | puranesu yahabharate tu devatvametasya nirvivadameva | mahabharata-kamasutraprabhrtigranyanam saksyena kuberah nandisvara rudra sivabhyam sahaivoparvanatah, tatha hi purusarthacatustayamadhikrtya brahmana vinirmitasya mahagranthasya kamarthabhagayoh niskramanakathaprasamgenasya tayoh sahayogitvam srarthasastrarupatvam ca prasphutibhavati | anyacca lokayatradevatvena lokapalah simhankalaksanah kuberah saktirupotsahasya, gadarupadandaniteh, rddhirupalokayatrayah, ratnapatrarupa- gunadharatayah, manusyavahanarupa rajyasya, samkhapadmanidhirupasampatteh, damstra rupa- nigrahanugrahayo sutaram svarupalaksanena pratinidhitvam pratirupatam varhati | evam hi visnudharma (III. 53 7-12) slokanam pramanabalena pura prayujya- manarthasyarthasastrasya va sthane kubera iti pradarsane srilekhaka mahodayanam tu visesa'bhinava kacidabhisandhiratra pratiyate | ] However crude and grotesque, the ancient Indian icons may appear to be in the eyes of their foreign connoisseurs, true to the motto of their designers, they are the live embodiments of the ideas mythical, spiritual and otherwise transcending the limits of verbal expression. One of the peculiar characteristics of Indian culture, as the presence of a spiritual core in every department of 1. Coomarswami, Dance of Siva pp. 96ff. Havell, Indian Sculpture and Painting p. 96. Stella Kramrisch, Indian Sculpture pp. 28f,

July, 1967] ARTHASASTRA IN PURANIC ICONOGRAPHY 291 life is, one need wonder at the inclusion of artha and arthasastra in the domain of Puranic iconography. The icon of artha, we are told at one place, is to be fashioned in the form of Dhanada the god of wealth.' The same source regards Dhanadhyaksa or Kubera as the embodiment of all the arthasastras. A glance at the features of the image of Kubera and their symbolicol implications, as prescribed in the texts sheds an interesting light upon the popular and spiritual concept of artha and arthasastra as held in ancient India. Dhanada or Kubera is to be given a complexion resembling that of lotus leaves. He is to ride a man and is to be adorned with all the ornaments and dresses all golden in colour. His belly should be big and pot-like, his hands should be four in number. Left of his two eyes should be yellow fc. His dress is prescribed to be 'apicya' which T. A. Gopinath Rao takes to be that of westerners while a note (probably editorial) in the text itself interprets it as 'very beautiful'. He should wear an armour and a necklace hanging down to his belly. His face should be provided with a beard and mustaches with two short tusks in his mouth. His head described as the destroyer of the enemy should be shown as slightly inclining to the left. In his left lap is to be seated the boon bestower goddess Riddhi his consort. The right one of her two hands should be placed on the back of the god while the left one should hold a 'ratnapatra'. The right pair of the four hands of the god should hold a 'gada' and a sakti' while the left ones should bear a standard marked with the figure of a lion and a sibika. "5. are to be portrayed the treasures called samkha and padma in On his sides 1. arthah karyastu rupena dhanadasya mahatmanah Visnudh. III. 72. 19. 2. arthasastrani sarvani dhanadhyaksah prakirtitah Ibid. III. 73. 49. 3. Elements of Hindu Iconography Vol. II. p 536. 4. apicyamatisundaram . 5. The text is simhanka laksanam vrttam sibikamapi padayoh . Evidently padayoh appears to be a mistake for THc: as it carries no sense to say that the emblems were held by feet.

292 puranam - PURANA [Vol. IX, No. 2 the human forms with their faces emerging out of conch shell and lotus flower respectively.' feature of the image Thus Dhanada is said After this physical description of the we are told of their symbolical imports. to be one of the forms of Aniruddha. He is dressed in a drapery of golden colour because gold is the most precious of all the wealths. His sakti is known as the sakti or power probably the same as 'prabhu' and 'utsaha' etc. His gada is the embodiment of dandaniti while his consort Riddhi stands for 'lokayatra' or the journey of life. The 'ratnapatra' in her hand symbolises the receptacle of qualities gunadhara . The man whom the god is riding stands for the state or c. The two nidhis viz., samkha and padma which are bodily present are embodiments of wealth. The lion standard which the god is holding represents artha with all its powers while the two short tusks of his mouth stand for the powers of punishment i.e. 'nigraha' and of bestowing favours i.e. 'anugraha'. ' 2 Now if we substitute artha or arthasastra in the place of Kubera or Dhanada the entire iconographic characteristics of the god acquire altogether new meaning. Kubera is one of the lokapalas and hence the ultimate 1. Visnudh. III. 53. 1-7. ef Matsya 261. 20-22. 2. aniruddhastu vijneyastvaya devo dhanadhipah suvarnam nama vikhyatam dhananamuttamam dhanam tasyanugrahato dhatte vasah kanakasannibham || saktirevasmrta sakti dandanitistatha gada lokayatra ca kathita rddhirjneya svabhavatah || tatkare ratnapatram tu gunadharam pracaksate naram rajyam vijaniha yatrasthastu sada vibhuh || svarupatastu vijneyo samkhapadmau tatha nidhi vittatomso jayatyasmimstabhyam prasavate'yutah || arthah saksamaya jneyah ketuh sihangalaksanah nigrahanugrahe damstra tasya tata mahatmanah || 3. A. Getty, Gods of Northern Bnddhism p. 139. Visnudh. III, 53.7-12.

July, 1967] ARTHASASTRA IN PURANIC ICONOGRAPHY 293 purpose of the science of arthasastra is to sustain the world. Arthasastra has to regulate and govern all those affairs of man that are likely to accentuate or impede the march of life in the world in as much as Kubera is the lord of 'lokayatra' embodied in the form of Riddhi his consort. As against the well known tradition of the epic and Kamasutra which regards dandaniti as the source of arthasastra' the present conception appears to take dandaniti in a more restricted sense, otherwise it would not have regarded gada in the right hand of the icon as the symbol of dandaniti. As is clear from the nature of the weapon which stands for it, dandaniti is nothing but the policy of punishment. The lion standard which the divine namesake of the sastra holds in one of his left hands makes it quite clear that the sastra is primarily devoted to artha of which the standard is the insignia. It may also be of some importance to notice, as Getty points out, the lion associated with Dhanada bears green names as against the usual yellow ones." The feature that the god is riding a man is no less a striking one. This shows that the burden of the entire regulative activities of the sastra is to be borne by common man.³ References to Dhanada and Dhanapati no doubt occur in the Rigveda and Atharvaveda but these epithets signify rather the charitable aspect of Indra than an independent god Kubera; for Gautama and Apastamba' still reckon Kubera and Nandisvara not as gods but as human beings. The Grihyasutra of Samkhayana, however, prescribes the offerings of meat, sesamum seeds and flowers for Kubera and Rudrasiva.³ Other Grihyasutras e. g. 1. Kamasutra, I. 1 5-10.; Mbh. XII. Ch. 59. 2. A. Getty. op. cit., p. 141. 3. JAOS Hopkins interpretea 'Naravahans' as drawn by spirit XXXIII pp. 60ff. but here nara is obviously said 10 signify rajya or kingdom. 4. I. 33. 2f. 5. V. 23. 2. 6. 16. 34. 7. 1. 3. 11. 3. 8. I. 11. 6. } These refer to Dharmasutras.

294 puranam - PURANA [Vol. IX., No. 2 Hiranyakesin know him as god. In the epics and the Puranas the godhood of Kubera is unquestioned, He is the lord of the Yaksas and Alaka, the guardian of north, the son of Visravas and Idavida or alternatively of Pulastya and the brother of Ravana.¹ He is known also as the son of a Yaksa Purnabhadra, his early name is Harikesa. Numerous Numerous legends about Kubera are scattered through the pages of the epics and the Puranas. Several attributes on the lines of which his image was later on devised appear in the course of these legends. Thus his lordship of Riddhi and his being carried by a man³ as also his association with the personified nidhis Samkha and Padma as his councillors* are concepts already established in the epics. His association, nay his identification with artha and arthasastra, however, is a notion that is conspicuous by its absence not only in the epics but also in most of the Puranas. But the fact that he was considered to be embodiment of artha and arthasastra in the Visnudharmottara Purana, as already noticed above, was not without a clue in the history of the development of the conception of Kubera. was The fact that Kubera is bracketed with Nandisvara as human being and with Rudrasiva as a god is significant. Nandi- svara like Kubera was also elevated to godhood and regarded as an important member of the retinue of Siva. Rudrasiva along with whom Kubera is mentioned, we know, was a prototype of Siva and probably a mixture of the Aryan and nonAryan concepts. Nandisvara is moreover credited by Vatsyayana with the extraction of the portions on kama from the gigantic compendium which Brahma composed on all the four purusarthas. Similarly Visalaksa, a synonym of Siva and a predecessor of Kautilya whom he quotes, is reputed to have extracte the portions on artha from the same compendium of 1. E. W. Hopkins, Epic Mythology pp. 142 ff. Bhag. IX. 2. 32-33. Brahmanda, II. 18. 1-2; 35.94; 36.28. III. 7.254, 331; 8.44; 72.2. Matsya, 121. 2-3; 137.32. Vayu, 69. 196. 2. Mbh. III. 139.8; V. 117,9; XIII. 146.4. 3. Ibid. III. 168. 13; V. 192.42. etc. 4. E. W. Hopkins, op. cit. p. 143. 5. Kamasutra, I. 1.5-10, trans. S. C. Upadhyay p. 67.

July, 1967] ARTHASASTRA IN PURANIC ICONOGRAPHY 295 Brahma. Now Kubera who was once on a par with Nandisvara the promulgator of the science of erotics, should also be connected in some way or the other with the science of the artha. The step was not an altogether a new one as the god was already associated with the nidhis Sankha and Padma as his councillors. He can, thus, easily be regarded as an embodiment of artha and arthasastra, the sister pursuit of kama and its science. Ths association of Kubera with Rudrasiva as the gods of the same status demonstrates the amalgamation of the vedic and nonvedic currents in the conception of Kubera, if not his non-vedic origin, This again, however accidentally lends a tacit support to the theory, already held by some ancient authorities, of the nonvedic origin of arthasastra." Harikesa, the would be Ganapati or Kubera, we are told, was a righteous and a devout person from his very childhood inspite of his being a yaksa by birth. Observing the man-like activities and nature of his son, his father Purnabhadra exhorted him to adopt that way of life to which a yaksa is entitled. When no response was shown from his side his father exiled him and he came over to Kasi where he devoted himself exclusively to Siva and began to practise austerities. Pleased by his penance Siva gave him the boon of being immune to all the diseases and death, venerable to all the ganas and lord of all the wealth. He also blessed him to be the bestower of foodgrains 'annadata', and protector of fields 'ksetrapala' besides being invincible.³ This tradition about the god is also significant in so far as it ties arthasastra as represented through him to 'varta' one of the essential bases of the state organisation with which the arthasastra professes to deal. It was hitherto the convention of Hindu mythogy to reckon Kubera as the god of wealth but the foregoing discussion makes it quite clear that there is at least a tendency, 1. Mbh. XII. 59.80. 2. J. S. Negi. Some Indological Studies Vol. I. p. 6. cf. Medhatithi on Manu VII. 1. 3. Matsya ch. 180.

296 puranam -- PURANA [Vol. IX., No. 2 however recent, in the Puranic lore to give him a wider significance by taking 'Dhana' in the sense of 'artha' and 'artha' as the subject matter of the arthasastra. Kubera, thus comes out to be a god of ancient Indian polity or arthasastra as well, or rather a deification of it. D