Image: 401 CE Udayagiri Varaha Relief annotated

Description: The Varaha panel at the Hindu Udayagiri Caves is one of the most studied examples from the Gupta Empire era. It narrates the Hindu mythology about a man-boar avatar of Vishnu (Varaha) rescuing goddess earth (Bhudevi, Prithivi) from the depths of cosmic ocean. The panel embeds many characters from the ancient legend. These appear to the all around Varaha and the delicately hanging goddess. The characters are marked above as follows: 1: Vishnu as Varaha 2: Goddess earth as Prithivi 3: Brahma (sitting on lotus) 4: Shiva (sitting on Nandi) 5: Adityas (all have solar halos) 6: Agni (hair on fire) 7: Vayu (hair airy, puffed up) 8: Ashtavasus (with 6&7, see Vishnu Purana) 9: Ekadasa or eleven Rudras (ithyphalic, third eye visible in some cases) 10: Ganadevatas 11: Rishis (Vedic sages of Hindu texts, each wearing barks of trees, a beard, carrying water pot and rosary beads for meditation) 12: Samudra 13: Gupta Empire minister Virasena 14: Gupta Empire king Chandragupta II 15: Nagadeva 16: Lakshmi 17: More Hindu sages (incomplete photo; these include the Vedic Saptarishis) 18: Sage Narada playing guitar 19: Sage Tumburu playing Vina This is a derivative work on the following wikimedia commons file: 005 Varaha Relief (32851921924).jpg
Title: 401 CE Udayagiri Varaha Relief annotated
Credit: Own work
Author: Ms Sarah Welch
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
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