File:6th century Varaha legend, Vishnu avatara, Badami Caves.jpg

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Captions

Captions

A Hindu legend depicted in a rock-cut cave, both deep and low reliefs

Summary

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Description
English: Badami caves are located in Badami, Karnataka, India. Inscriptions here help date two of these caves to the 6th-century, while parts of the third cave and the most of the fourth is likely from the 7th-century. All were likely complete in 6th to 7th century, with some additions to the Jain caves likely in early 8th century.
  • The above panel shows the Varaha legend of the Hindu god Vishnu.
  • As a massive flood inundate the earth, Vishnu appears in the form of a boar-avatara called Varaha to save the earth. He dives into the water, rescues her respectfully to her grace.
  • Like all Vishnu legends, there is embedded allegory with symbolism. The floods are a symbolism for persecution, sorrow and any kind of suffering; the earth in this panel is shown as a goddess named Bhudevi (literally goddess of land). She is shown in Varaha's left hand, standing on a sacred lotus. Exhausted by the trauma and turmoil, she holds on to his tusk. The ocean is implied by the Naga coiled below.
  • The panel establishes that the multi-armed armed Vishnu iconography of chakra (discus) in the right rear hand and shankha (conch) in the left rear was well established by the 6th-century. Similarly the gada (mace, Kaumodaki) is also depicted in one of his right hands. The jewelry and half-boar, half-man depiction shows Vishnu's wealth and power, along with his ability to creatively transform.
  • There are green and red shades and fragments in parts of this panel. That is because the Badami caves were originally painted caves. Almost all of the original paint has been lost to history and natural elements, except for certain sections.
Date
Source Own work
Author Ms Sarah Welch
Camera location15° 55′ 05.99″ N, 75° 41′ 03.99″ E Kartographer map based on OpenStreetMap.View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMapinfo

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I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:
Creative Commons CC-Zero This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current19:12, 18 August 2023Thumbnail for version as of 19:12, 18 August 20232,409 × 3,734 (11.62 MB)Sebastian Wallroth (talk | contribs)Cropped 4 % horizontally, 3 % vertically using CropTool with lossless mode. Removed border.
13:40, 22 August 2021Thumbnail for version as of 13:40, 22 August 20212,517 × 3,842 (11.98 MB)Ms Sarah Welch (talk | contribs)Uploaded own work with UploadWizard

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