War and peace

The iconography associated with Vishnu is quite fascinating. Typically he is shown reclining on the snake god Adi Sesha and riding on his vahana Garuda, the bird god.

As is well known, the serpent and the eagle are arch enemies. In the animal kingdom, the eagle preys on the snake and the snake, on the eagle's young. This relationship has been explored in great detail in folklore and myth -- the birth of Garuda and his subsequent journey to free his mother is a famous case in point.

However the enmity motif becomes inconsequential in the depiction of Vishnu. Both Adi Sesha (serpent) and Garuda (eagle) are his devotees and I haven't yet come across any stories that bring out their mutual antagonism in this role. Clearly though the two never meet -- Vishnu is unlikely to recline and fly at the same time and perhaps that is the reason why there are no idols that have Vishnu, Adi Sesha and Garuda in the same frame. Most Vishnu temples have sculptures of both but they are never shown together. If there is one, and if any of you have come across such a temple or painting or sculpture, please write in.

But to come back to the serpent-eagle relationship, how and when did things change?

Was it under the unifying influence of the Vedic pantheon? Or was it the outcome of the assimilating power of an old religion such as Hinduism? Or was it, the bulldozer effect -- where a majority sucks in minority faiths to make one composite whole, often assigning a deferential role to their gods?

It would be impossible to answer any of the above with authority. But, whatever be the reasons and the reasoning, the iconography records a turning point in the serpent-eagle relationship in the kingdom of myth. It represents an understanding that natural enemies can co-exist without one knocking out the other.

Finally, this is not the only explanation of the iconography. There are many more theories that are extremely relevant and perhaps far more popular and I would love to collect them all. My search has just begun but as and when the explanations pour in, will publish them on the blog.