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Photographic prints at the Kern Institute Leiden
The Boar as an Image of Creation
A few months ago,
while going through a travel guide for Portugal, I came across a reference
to the existence of a group of seventeen pig or wild boar statues in the
remote region of Tras-os-Montes. It struck me that the granite 'porca'
from Murca with its impressive outline of 2.80 m appeared to be Portugal's
oldest (iron age) monolithic statue. It immediately reminded me of the
twenty-nine fully relief-covered boar statues from Central India (Madhya
Pradesh, fifth to fourteenth centuries AD) of which the boar from Eran
is the oldest known colossus of India! What made people represent pigs
and boars? What are the symbols and myths connected with these animals
and how were they shaped into icons?
* By GERDA THEUNS-DE BOER
Although belonging to the same Suidea family,
pigs and boars have a totally different 'image': pigs are referred to
as tame, domesticated, and only meant for human consumption, whereas boars
are wild, to be hunted, vigorous, and well-equipped with dangerous tusks.
This difference in 'image' made some peoples choose specifically to represent
either the pig or the boar. Yet, some common characteristics contributed
to their fascination in general, especially in Europe, in ancient times.
Abundance
and fertility
One of these fascinations was related to their fast-growing
and readily fattened body, the swine as the non-vegetable equivalent of
ripening corn. Both are likely to have stood for growing potential and
abundance. Proof of an interrelationship between swine and corn is not
difficult to find. Quite a number of swine figurines have been found impressed
with grain (e.g. Upper Dniester Valley, fifth millennium BC), and in several
Northern European countries, the swine was regarded as the embodiment
of the spirit of corn. Besides, the swine was the animal that was chosen
for sacrifice to Demeter, the Greek goddess of the earth's fertility,
made manifest in agriculture, especially in corn growing. Above all, swine
were associated with fertility. They have large litters (ranging from
eight to twelve) and the young are sexually mature within a year. A suckling
swine was the perfect metaphor for fertility and abundance.
The habit of uprooting the soil with their nose in search
for food strongly connected them with the 'earth'. According to legend,
they even taught humankind the art of ploughing. Their preference for
moisture and water, a must for growth, made him once more connected with
fertility. 
Nrvarah from Garhwa. ASI, 1909-1910 Silver gelatine developing out
paper
Varaha:
The Indian boar
Varaha is nowadays known to us as the third incarnation
or 'descent' (avatara)
of the Hindu god Visnu. There are two ways to present him as such: fully
zoomorphic (some authors prefer calling this form Yajna Varaha) and as
a man-animal hybrid, for which the term Nrvaraha is preferred. 'Nr' in
this term connotes 'man'. In the latter case, we see a boar's head on
a human body (see photo). Although both forms are strongly interrelated
by the same 'core myth', they each stress different aspects of that same
expanding myth. For that reason both icons were produced side by side,
although the Nrvaraha form dominates quantitatively.
In vedic literature Varaha was related to two different myths: the
boar myth, in which the boar served as the sacrificial animal (yajna),
and the cosmogonic myth. In this myth Varaha is not yet associated with
Visnu but with the vedic god of creation: Prajapati. It was Prajapati
who 'saw' the earth in the primordial waters while he moved in them
as the Wind. With his tusks, he took the form of Varaha in order to
lift the earth from the waters, establishing a primary creation. 
Varaha from Badoh. ASI 1908-1909
Later, in epic-puranic literature, Brahma takes over the
creator function from Prajapati; so it is Brahma who takes the form of
Varaha in order to lift the earth again from the waters, or as it is sometimes
expressed: from the nether world (patala),
where it had sunk after the earth's destruction by fire and deluge at
the end of that certain world period (kalpa).
Hence, Varaha's act of lifting the earth is no longer a primary creation,
but has become a 'secondary' creation, a periodical act of renewal serving
to establish the world anew, again and again.
The Brahma character of the myth, however, will change under the influence
of expanding visnuism: Varaha is seen as a creator form of Visnu. Besides,
some late-epic and puranic texts show an innovation in the cosmogonic
myth: now Varaha has not only re-established the earth but also killed
the demon king Hiranyaksa who lived in the nether world and had conquered
the gods.
Most probably, myth was here affected by the popularity of Visnu's
fourth avatara:
a man-lion, called Narasimha, who succesfully kills the demon king,
Hiranyakasipu. In order to fit Varaha for his 'extended' job, a new
iconographic form for Varaha was created: half-animal, half-human. Thanks
to a boon, neither an animal nor a man could kill Hiranyaksa, only a
half-animal, half-human form could be successful. Endowed with four
to six arms and several weapons he proves to be able to re-establish
the earth and restore social and legal order by slaying all demonic
powers.
Zoomorphic
Varaha
Let us return to the zoomorphic Varahas. The first photograph
shows the Varaha from Badoh (Pratihara period, ninth century) nowadays
kept in the Archaeological Museum, Gwalior. Varaha can be seen to lift
the earth, which is personified as the goddess Bhu (meaning earth), with
his right tusk. In front of Varaha are three small damaged figures: Garuda
(Visnu's mount), a naga (a
snake or water spirit) and a fly-whisk bearer. Between Varaha's legs we
see the coils of Ananta Sesa (the endless serpent), the primeval serpent.
Although several scenes on the pedestal have been identified, this is
not the place to go into details. Varaha's body is covered with 765 figures
displayed in horizontal bands and three circles (vertebral column). These
figures have puzzled researchers for a long time, both in concept and
in serial and individual identification. Thanks to detailed photography
and textual study, its iconographical programme is, by a series of hits
and misses, revealing. Although every Varaha is unique in content and
configuration of the figures, there is enough proof to say that zoomorphic
Varaha is predominantly related to the concept of creation and possibly
to the concept of sacrifice (yajna).
Creation is viewed 'broadly' here, as the whole universe is visualized.
Not only are we presented with series of interrelated major and minor
divinities, gods in different manifestations (e.g. avatara-series
of Visnu!), sages (e.g. the Saptarsis), celestial beings and priests,
but also the representation of the twenty-seven naksatras
(constellations of stars) and the nine planets (navagraha).
In order to visualize 'yajna',
specific components of yajna
were personified and depicted chiefly on Varaha's head and limbs.
The second photograph depicts the lesser known Varaha from
Muradpur, a small village on the borders of Madhya Pradesh. This Varaha,
with an estimated height of 2.50 m, is worshipped even today. In this
early photo the roof of the mandapa
is missing. This photo is a wonderful illustration of the impact
these huge Varahas had on humans. It was no wonder that the Varaha icon
ranked among Indian kings' and donors' favourites as it enabled them to
express their might and create a 'new world', where social and legal order
would prevail. *
Nrvaraha
from Garhwa. ASI, 1909-1910. Silver gelatine developing out paper.
References:
Nagar, Shanti Lal, Varaha
in Indian Art, Culture and Literature, New Delhi (1993).
Rangarajan, Haripriya, 'Varaha
Images in Madhya Pradesh, Symbolism and Iconography', in: Journal
of the Asiatic Society of Bombay, Mumbai (1997),
pp. 100-119, Vol. 72.
Rangarajan, Haripriya, Varaha
Images in Madhya Pradesh, an iconographic study, Mumbai (1997).
 Drs
Gerda Theuns-de Boer is an art historian and Project Manager of the Photographic
Database on Asian Art and Archaeology, Kern Institute, Leiden University.
E-mail: g.a.m.theuns@let.leidenuniv.nl
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