''Caturvyūha'' or ''Chatur-vyūha'' (), is an ancient Indian religious concept initially focusing on the four earthly emanations (

Vyūha Vyūha (Sanskrit: व्यूह) means - 'to arrange troops in a battle array (formation)', 'to arrange, put or place in order, to dispose, separate, divide, alter, transpose, disarrange, resolve (vowels syllables etc.)'. Its root is व्य� ...

s) of the Supreme deity

Nārāyaṇa Narayana (, ) is one of the forms and epithets of Vishnu. In this form, the deity is depicted in yogic slumber under the celestial waters, symbolising the masculine principle and associated with his role of creation. He is also known as Pu ...

, and later

Viṣṇu Vishnu (; , , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism, and the god of preservation (sattva). Vish ...

. The first of these emanations is the hero-god

Vāsudeva Vāsudeva (; ), later incorporated as Vāsudeva-Krishna (, "Krishna, son of Vasudeva Anakadundubhi, Vasudeva"),"While the earliest piece of evidence do not yet use the name Krsna...." in At the time of the Heliodorus pillar dedication to Vāsu ...

, with the other emanations being his kinsmen presented as extensions of Vāsudeva himself. From around the 1st century CE, this "Vyuha doctrine" (''Vyūhavāda'') developed out of the earlier ''Vīravāda'' cult of the

Vrishni heroes The Vrishni heroes (IAST: ''Vrishni, Vṛṣṇi vīras''), also referred to as ''Pancha-viras'' (IAST: ''Pañca vīras''; 'the five heroes'), are a group of five legendary, deified heroes who are found in the literature and archaeological sites ...

, in which the five heroes

Saṃkarṣaṇa Saṃkarṣaṇa (IAST , "The Plougher") later known as Balarama, was a son of Vasudeva Anakadundubhi, king of the Vrishnis in the region of Mathura. He was a leading member of the Vrishni heroes, and may well have been an ancient historical rul ...

Pradyumna Pradyumna () is the eldest son of the Hindu deities Krishna and his wife Rukmini. He is considered to be one of the four vyuha avatars of Vishnu. According to the Bhagavata Purana, Pradyumna was the reincarnation of Kamadeva, the god of lov ...

Samba Samba () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...

and

Aniruddha Aniruddha () is a character in Hindu mythology, the son of Pradyumna and Rukmavati, and the grandson of Krishna and Rukmini. He is said to have been very much like his grandfather, to the extent that he is considered by some to be a ''Jana ...

had remained mostly human in character. Still later, around the 4th century CE, it evolved into the ''Avatāravāda'' system of incarnations of

Vishnu Vishnu (; , , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism, and the god of preservation ( ...

, in which Vishnu was the primordial being and the Vrishni heroes had become his avatars.

Concept and evolution

The four earthly emanations, or ''" Vyuhas"'', are identified as Samkarshana (

Balarama Balarama (, ) is a Hindu god, and the elder brother of Krishna. He is particularly significant in the Jagannath tradition, as one of the triad deities. He is also known as Haladhara, Halayudha, Baladeva, Balabhadra, and Sankarshana. The fir ...

-Samkarshana, son of

Vasudeva Vasudeva (; Sanskrit: वसुदेव ), also called Anakadundubhi (''anakas'' and ''dundubhis'' both refer to ''drums'', after the musicians who played these instruments at the time of his birth), is the father of the Hindu deities Krishna ( ...

Devaki Devaki (Sanskrit: देवकी, International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''Devakī'') is a character in Hindu texts, Hindu literature, most noted for being the mother of the god Krishna. She is one of the seven daughters of ...

krishna (son of

(son of Vasudeva Krishna by

Rukmini Rukmini (, ) is a Devi, Hindu goddess and the first queen of Krishna. She is described as the chief of Krishna's wives in Dvārakā. Rukmini is revered as the avatar of Lakshmi and is venerated primarily in Warkari, and Haridasa tradition, and ...

), and

(son of Pradyumna). They are probably similar the legendary

of the

Mathura Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the states and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located south-east of Delhi; and about from the town of Vrindavan. In ancient ti ...

region, minus

(son of Vasudeva by

Jambavati Jambavati () is chronologically the second '' Ashtabharya'' of the Hindu god Krishna. She is the only daughter of the bear-king Jambavan. Krishna marries her when he defeats her father, Jambavan, in his quest to retrieve the stolen Syamantaka ...

). Originally, several of these earthly deities, particularly

, seem to have formed one of several major independent cults, together with the cults of

Narayana Narayana (, ) is one of the forms and epithets of Vishnu. In this form, the deity is depicted in yogic slumber under the celestial waters, symbolising the masculine principle and associated with his role of creation. He is also known as Pu ...

Shri Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific. The word is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as Assamese, Meitei ( Manipuri), Marathi, Malay (including In ...

, and

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, , ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She along with Parvat ...

, before they later coalesced to form Vishnuism. The actual cult of

only developed after these initial cults were established. The heroes would then have evolved into Vaishnavite deities through a step-by-step process: 1) deification of the Vrishni heroes 2) association with the God

3) incorporation into the Vyuha concept of successive emanations of the God. Epigraphically, the deified status of Vāsudeva in particular is confirmed by his appearance on the coinage of

Agathocles of Bactria Agathocles I Dicaeus (, meaning "Agathocles the Just") was a Greco-Bactrian/Indo-Greek king, who reigned between around 190 and 180 BC. He was likely from the dynasty of Euthydemus I, but he is also known to have commemorated both Diodotus I and A ...

(190-180 BCE) and by the devotional character of the

Heliodorus pillar The Heliodorus pillar is a stone column that was erected around 113 BCE in central India in Besnagar (Vidisha), Madhya Pradesh. The pillar is commonly named after Heliodorus (identified by him as a Garuda-standard), who was an ambassador of the In ...

inscription (circa 110 BCE). Later, the association with

(

) is suggested by the Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions of the 1st century BCE.

Kushan Caturvyuha (2nd century BCE)

By the 2nd century CE, the "''avatara'' concept was in its infancy", and the depiction of Vishnu with his four emanations (the ''Chatur-vyūha''), consisting in the Vrishni heroes minus Samba, starts to become visible in art at the end of the

Kushan ''Kushan'' or Kushana may refer to: * Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire (– CE) was a Syncretism, syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now Afghanistan ...

period. Starting with the

art of Mathura The Art of Mathura refers to a particular school of Indian art, almost entirely surviving in the form of sculpture, starting in the 2nd century BCE, which centered on the city of Mathura, in central northern India, during a period in which Bu ...

, Vāsudeva (avatar of

) fittingly appears in the center of the sculptural compositions, with his decorated heavy mace on the side and a conch shell in the hand, his elder brother

to his right under a serpent hood and holding a drinking cup, his son

to his left, and his grandson

on top. File:Caturvyuha, Vasudeva with ornate crown and flower necklace, making the Abhaya Mudra.jpg, Vasudeva with ornate crown and flower necklace, making the Abhaya Mudra File:Caturvyuha, Balarama under his snake hood holding a cup.jpg, Samkarsana-

under his snake hood holding a cup File:Caturvyuha, vasudeva's mace held by one of his supplementary hands.jpg, Vasudeva's mace held by one of his supplementary hands

Possible Bhita Caturvyuha (2nd century BCE)

An ancient statue from Bhita near

Allahabad Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...

(), with four figures facing in four directions, now in the Lucknow Museum, has been proposed to represent the ''Caturvyuha'' concept, although interpretations vary. It is dated to the 2nd century BCE on stylistic grounds, being quite similar in style to the monumental

Yaksha The Yakshas (, , ) in Mythology are a broad class of nature spirits, usually benevolent, but sometimes mischievous or capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, treasure and wilderness. They appear in Hindu, Jain and Bud ...

statues. The main figure is bigger than the others, wears a crown and earrings, as well as an ornate necklace and bracelets, and raises his hand in " abahaya mudra", a symbol of deification, and holds jar in the left hand. The figure would be

. To the proper right side of the crowned figure appears an unidentifiable face, and below it a seated lion. This part could identified with Samkarsana, combining anthropomorphic and

theriomorphic The word ''zoomorphism'' derives from and . In the context of art, zoomorphism could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals. It can also be defined as art that portrays one species of animal like another species of animal or art ...

characteristics, and later associated with

Narasimha Narasimha (, , or , ), is the fourth avatara of the Hindu god Vishnu in the Satya Yuga. He incarnated as a part-lion, part-man and killed Hiranyakashipu, ended religious persecution and calamity on earth, and restored dharma. Narasimha has th ...

. On the proper left side of the crowned figure also appears an unidentifiable face, and below it a boar on a pedestal, standing on its hind legs, with the front legs joint in the '' namaskāra'' gesture of prayer and devotion. This could be

, later identified with

Varaha Varaha (, , "boar") is the avatar of the Hinduism, Hindu god Vishnu, in the form of a wild boar, boar. Varaha is generally listed as third in the Dashavatara, the ten principal avatars of Vishnu. In legend, when the demon Hiranyaksha steals ...

. The figure on the reverse is devoid of ornamentation, the hair is parted in the middle and falls loosely, but both arms are broken, making it impossible to identify their attributes. This could be

, later associated with

Rudra Rudra (/ ɾud̪ɾə/; ) is a Rigvedic deity associated with Shiva, the wind or storms, Vayu, medicine, and the hunt. One translation of the name is 'the roarer'. In the ''Rigveda'', Rudra is praised as the "mightiest of the mighty". Rudra ...

and the fierce-looking Kāpila. This sculpture of the Caturvyuha shows the Vrishni heroes, but already associates them with their animal form. This seems to prefigure the Vishnu Chaturmurti, in which

, crowned with a halo, is also flanked by the images of

and

, with Kāpila in back as seen in the examples from

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

. The general style of the figures is quite similar to that of the early

s, and it has been suggested that their role might have been understood as parallel: just as the Yakshas are considered as emanations of the Supreme deity

Brahman In Hinduism, ''Brahman'' (; IAST: ''Brahman'') connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality of the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), ''Idealistic Thought of India'', Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part XII In the ...

, the four Vyuhas are similarly emanations of

References

{{Mathura Museum Vaishnavism Forms of Vishnu