Anantashayi Vishnu, also known as Anantashayana Vishnu (both literally sleeping on the serpent Shesha), is a large open air rock-cut image of the Hindu god Vishnu, carved during the early 9th Century in the Saranga village, under the Parjang police station, in Dhenkanal district of Orissa, India. It is located on the left bank of the Brahmani River. It is the largest such exposed rock cut structure in the horizontal position measuring 15.4 metres (51 ft) in length, in the whole of India, while the largest standing image is of Gomateshwara in Southern India. It is a protected monument maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India, Bhubaneswar Circle. Worship is still offered to the four armed reclining Vishnu.The image was carved during the first quarter of the 9th century CE when the Bhaumakara Dynasty that ruled in central part of Orissa. It has been analysed on the basis of its idiom and crown and dated to belong to later part of the Bhaumakara reign. Historical records also indicate that the Nandodhbahav feudatory rulers, under the Bhaumakara kings, who were followers of Vaishnavism (the Hindu sect which worships Vishnu as the Supreme God), were instrumental in getting the carvings of two large rock-cut images of Vishnu - the one at Saranga and the other at Dankal, in the upper Brahmani River valley.The Bhaumakara kings asserted their association with Vaishnavism in the grants that they provided to carve the rock-cut sculptures and temples as recorded on the occasion of the celebrations of Vishuvazakranthi and Devtesvaduadasi. It is also reported that the urge to create these carved sculptures with deep expressions of vigour and vitality was inspired from the expressions depicted in the rock cut temples at Ellora and Elephanta in Maharashtra, and Mahabalipuram temples in Tamil Nadu. Such carvings on entrance gates or central part of regular temple lintels have been noted in the Rajeevlochana temple at Rajim and the Lakshmana temple in Sirpur, which were forerunners for to its adoption under the Bhaumakara kingdom.wikipedia]
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 07:23:47 +0000
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