History · Ch 4 — Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings — Cultural Developments
The growth of Puranic Hinduism
The growth of Puranic Hinduism
The idea of a divine saviour who intervenes to rescue the world was not exclusive to Buddhism. Similar beliefs were developing within traditions that later came to be called Hinduism. Two major streams of this kind were Vaishnavism (where Vishnu is the supreme deity) and Shaivism (where Shiva is the chief god). In both, the focus shifted to the worship of a single chosen deity, and the relationship between the devotee and that god was understood as one of intense love and devotion — this is called bhakti.
Vaishnavism and the concept of avatars
In Vaishnavism, the idea of the saviour took the form of avatars — incarnations of Vishnu that he was believed to assume whenever the world was threatened by evil and disorder. Ten such avatars were recognised within the tradition. It is likely that different avatars were popular in different parts of the country. By recognising each of these local deities as a form of Vishnu, a more unified religious tradition could be created.
Representations of deities in sculpture
Deities were represented in sculptures using a complex set of symbols. For example, Shiva was often symbolised by the linga, though he was also shown in human form. The symbols used included:
- Head-dresses and ornaments
- Ayudhas — weapons or auspicious objects held in the hands
- The posture or seating arrangement of the deity
To understand the meaning of these sculptures, historians must know the stories behind them. Many of these stories are found in the Puranas.
The Puranas: sources and audience
The Puranas were compiled by Brahmanas around the middle of the first millennium CE. They contained material that had been composed and passed down orally for centuries, including stories about gods and goddesses. Key features of the Puranas:
- Written in simple Sanskrit verse …
The relief at Aihole, carved around the sixth century CE, shows Vishnu in his third avatar — the boar Varaha — lifting the earth goddess Prithvi from the cosmic waters. This is one of the ten avatars through which local deities were absorbed into the growing Vaishnava tradition. The sculpture is a single panel, not a narrative sequence. Varaha is shown as a massive, muscular boar-headed figure, standing upright on two legs. He holds the tiny figure of the earth goddess on his snout or tusks, while she clings to him with one arm, her posture relaxed and grateful. The scale is deliberately exaggerated: Varaha towers over the goddess, making the rescue seem effortless and emphasising his divine power.
The relief is carved into a cave wall at Aihole, a major early Chalukya site in Karnataka. The date — sixth century CE — places it in the period when Puranic Hinduism was taking shape, and when Vaishnavism was actively incorporating regional cults. The boar avatar itself comes from a Puranic story: the earth had been dragged into the primordial ocean by a demon, and Vishnu took the form of a boar to dive down, kill the demon, and lift the earth back to the surface. The sculpture captures the moment of lifting, not the battle.
What the proportions teach
The huge size of Varaha relative to the goddess is not a mistake — it is a deliberate visual statement. It tells the viewer that the god is overwhelmingly powerful, and that the devotee (here, the earth itself) is completely dependent on divine grace. This fits the bhakti idea of a personal, loving bond between a devotee and a chosen deity, where the god is the saviour.
The relief also shows other details typical of Vaishnava iconography: Varaha wears a crown and jewellery, and holds a mace and a discus (the gada and chakra), which are Vishnu's standard ayudhas (weapons/auspicious objects). The earth goddess is shown as a graceful woman, not a planet — she is a personification. The entire composition is compact, with the two figures filling the frame, and the boar's snout and tusks curving around the goddess to create a sense of protective enclosure. …
The relief at Mahabalipuram shows Durga in a dynamic, active pose, carved into the rock face of the site. She is not seated calmly but is shown in the midst of action, which matches the Puranic stories of her as a warrior goddess who battles and defeats the buffalo-demon Mahishasura. The sculptor has emphasised movement — her multiple arms fan out, each holding a weapon or auspicious object (an ayudha), and her posture suggests she is striding forward or lunging. This visual energy is deliberate: it conveys the idea of a saviour deity who intervenes directly to destroy evil and restore cosmic order.
The figure is part of a larger set of reliefs at Mahabalipuram, a site from the sixth century CE under the Pallava dynasty. The choice of Durga here is significant. While the textbook section discusses Vaishnavism and Shaivism, the inclusion of this image shows that the growing worship of a chosen deity — the bhakti emphasis — was not limited to Vishnu or Shiva. The goddess, too, was being elevated as a supreme, personal deity with whom a devotee could have a loving, devoted bond. The relief thus illustrates the same trend of Puranic Hinduism that the text describes: a shift toward single-deity worship, where the god or goddess is seen as a saviour who responds to the devotee’s love.
What the image does not show is any narrative panel or sequence of events. It is a single, large figure of Durga, not a storyboard. There are no arrows, labels, or relationships drawn between multiple figures — just the goddess herself, carved in high relief. The focus is entirely on her form and attributes. This is typical of early medieval sculpture: the deity’s iconography — the number of arms, the weapons, the posture — carries the meaning, not a written caption or a series of scenes.
The textbook caption dates this relief to the sixth century CE, which places it squarely in the period when the Puranas were being compiled and when bhakti traditions were gaining ground across the subcontinent. Mahabalipuram was a major centre of artistic production under the Pallavas, and its rock-cut monuments are a key source for historians studying the visual culture of Puranic Hinduism. …