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Image identified: Vara-ha-vata-ra
Nepal,
Date (NS/AD): 17th century

1.

2.            3.

4.

5.

6.

Transliteration:

1.Samudra               6.vitaraloka koti
2.vava ma                5.sutararoka satakot*i
tsya
VA-M*
va-suki-
KU-~
ku-rmma

3.HRI-M* 4.(pa-ta-)ra tara-tararoka ma-ha-tararoka
a-dha-ras'akti
MA~
man*(d*u-ka)

Translation:

1.The sea (which are seven and covers the earth)
2.(sea) produced fish
VA-M* (Bi-ja-ks*ara Mantra) for Va-suki (the king of serpent)
KU-~ (Bi-ja-ks*ara Mantra) for Ku-rma (tortoise)
3.HRI-M* (Bi-ja-ks*ara Mantra) for A-dha-ras'akti (basic female consort)
MA~ (Bi-ja-ks*ara Mantra) for Man*d*u-ka (frog)
4.(Lower world) : (pa-ta-)la
: Tala-talaloka
: Maha-talaloka
5. : Sutalaloka (measurement of which is ) one hundred
crore (yojana)
6. : Vitalaloka (measurement of which is) a crore
(yojana)

This image of Varaha Avatara (Boar incarnation) of Vishnu is written in a foldbook (Thyasaphu) . Varaha has four hands and four weapons of disc, lotus, conch and mace as of Vishnu here. According to the Hindu Mythology, Vishnu took his third incarnation of Varaha to rescue the Earth as once she had taken down into lower world by a demon Varaha searched out and rescued her.

In this sketchbook in left side the sea is depicted as the background. There are aquatic creatures fish , serpent and frog. Riding vehicles on verticle series of the frog, Adharas'akti, tortoise, serpent, fish and Varaha on the top is curious thing of this image. This may indicte any Puranic story, which is not known now.

In right hand, names of Patala (lower world) are written. There are several system of counting lower world in Hindu scripture. Hari Ram Joshi (2001 : 219) gives the following names from a manuscript of NS 842 (AD 1722) : tala, nitala, sutala, vitala, tala-lala, rasa-tala and pa-ta-la . Vajracarya (1976 : 217) gives names of the lower world as written in king Pratap Malla's Bhugola (geography) of NS 777(AD 1646) : Vital, sutala, maha-tala, tala-tala, rasa-tala and pa-ta-la . We have here vitala, sutala, pa-ta-la, tala-tala and maha-tala. Here tala and nitala are missing in right side, which must be there in the following missing fold. There may be something below after man*(d*uka) in leftside also. The image of Varaha is not complete on the top of extant foldbook . So, there may be something on the top also, which is missing now. In stone sculpture, there is generally depicted the earth in human female form sitted on the shoulder of Varaha (Bangdel 1995 : 54,107 )

One interesting significance of this image is Bijaks*ara which is made from the initial letter of the name of acquatic creatures as VA-M* for Va-suki, KU-~ for Ku-rma, MA~ for Man*d*u-ka. However HRI-M* is represented here for tantric diety A-dha-ras'akti.


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