Saranga Anantashayana Vishnu- Odisha

Address

Saranga Anantashayana Vishnu- Saranga Village, Dhenkanal district Odisha 759146

Diety

Anantashayana Vishnu

Introduction

Anantashayi Vishnu, also known as Anantashayana Vishnu (both literally “sleeping on the serpent Shesha”), is a large open air rock-cut image of the god Vishnu, carved during the early 9th Century in the Saranga village, under the Parjang police station, in Dhenkanal district of Odisha, India. It is located on the left bank of the Bramhani River. The Vishnu image, under the open sky, occupies an area measuring 15.4 metres (51 ft) in length and 7 metres (23 ft) in width with a thickness of 0.7 metres (2 ft 4 in), in the whole of India, while the largest standing image is of Gomatrswara in Southern India. It is a protected monument maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India, Bhubaneswar Circle.

Puranic Significance

The proprietor god is seen reclining on the rocky pedestal covered by his ever devoted great serpent. This magnificent sculpture made out of a single piece of rock formed from sandstone was carved during the early 9th Century and lies in the Saranga village, in Dhenkanal district of Odisha in India. The terms Anantashayi Vishnu and Anantashayana Vishnu used to denote this particular depiction of the Creator and Preserver in the Hindu pantheon of divinity literally translates to “Vishnu sleeping on a serpent Shesh”. The Shesh Naga or the serpent Shesh is a mythological character and is believed to be the chosen vehicle or abode of the Lord Vishnu. The image was carved during the first quarter of the 9th century CE when the Bhauma-Kara that ruled in central part of Orissa. It has been analyzed 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.

Beliefs

Anantasyi Lord Vishnu, on the rough bed of the waterway Brahmani at Saranga. The hoods of Ananta, the serpent ruler spreads over the head of Lord Vishnu as the crown and spread. The primal lotus, lodging Brahma, the maker, starts from Vishnu ” s navel, the Supreme Being getting a charge out of profound joy of his universe sized rest in the waters of the stream Brahmani.