page_title: Eran
section_title: Varaha temple
hierarchical_section_title: Eran / Description / Temples / Varaha temple
caption_attribution_description: English: From the source, Photograph of the statue of Varaha, standing amongst the ruins of the Varaha Temple at Eran, taken by Henry Cousens in c.1892-94. The town of Eran has been occupied from the second century BC onwards. It is located in a naturally defensible position, in a bend in the Bina river. Eran was an important site during the Gupta period and the pieces shown in this photograph were sculpted at that time. In the background there is a statue of Vishnu. This colossal boar statue (some 11 feet high and 13 feet long ) dates to the 5th century. It is completely covered with minature carved figures. It represents Vishnu in his boar incarnation lifting the earth, represented as the goddess Bhu, on one of his tusks. The demon Hiranyaksha had pushed the earth under the waters and Vishnu saved it from being submerged.
context_page_description: Eran is an ancient town and archaeological site in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh, India. It was one of the ancient mints for Indian dynasties as evidenced by the diverse coins excavated here. The site has 5th and 6th-century Gupta era temples and monuments, particularly the colossal stone boar with sages and scholars depicted on the body of the sculpture. The inscription stones found at Eran are important to reconstructing the chronology and Gupta Empire history. Eran or Erakina was the capital of Erakina Pradesha or Airkina Vishaya, an administrative division of the Gupta empire.
context_section_description: The most unusual and remarkable temple is dedicated to the Varaha avatar of Vishnu. Typically, Varaha is presented in Hindu temples as a man-boar avatar. In Eran, it is a colossal theriomorphic representation of the Varaha legend, which Catherine Becker calls an "iconographic innovation".
  The boar is made of stone, but the intricate carving of the surface of its body, a goddess hanging by its right tusk, inscriptions and other details make the statue a symbolic narrative. The Eran site is in ruins, but there is enough remnants that suggest that the site was far more complex and developed. Currently, the boar stands in open, but the foundation and stumps around it confirm that around it were walls and mandapa that formed a complete temple. Scholars debate what the shape of the temple would have been. Cunningham, the first archaeologist to write a systematic report, suggested a rectangular shrine. Later scholars such as Catherine Becker suggests that it was likely larger, more along the lines of one found in Khajuraho shrine for Varaha.
  Colossal Varaha
  The Colossal Varaha at Eran is the earliest known completely theriomorphic iconography for the Varaha avatar of Vishnu. The scene shown is the return of Varaha after he had successfully killed the oppressive demon Hiranyaksha, found and rescued goddess earth (Prithivi, Bhudevi), and the goddess is back safely. The Eran Varaha statue is significant for several reasons:
  it shows the importance and popularity of Vaishnavism and its legend of Vishnu avatars
  the statue includes goddess earth hanging by the boar's right tusk; she has a tidy hairdo bun, has a turban that is bejeweled, her face calm
  the floor is carved to depict the ocean (samudra) with serpents and sealife, a reminder of the oppressive demon who attacks dharma legend
  on the body of the Varaha are carved sages and saints of Hinduism identified by their simple robes, pointy beards and hair knotted up like sadhus, by they holding kamandalu water pot in one hand and with a yoga mudra in the other, symbolizing knowledge needing protection and god's benevolence when attacked by the oppressive demon Hiranyaksha
  the Varaha's tongue is sticking out slightly, on it is standing a small goddess who has been interpreted as Saraswati (or Vedic goddess Vac)
  in his ears are shown celestial musicians
  he wears a roundels garland on his shoulders and neck, these add up to 28 matching the 5th-century astronomy that used 28 major stars to divide the night skies into constellations; each of the roundels has miniature carvings with male and female figures
  the artists made the teeth of the boar humanlike, his eyes too are made to depict compassion
  on its front chest is the Toramana inscription which confirms that the Hunas has invaded the northwest, displaced Gupta Empire authority, and their brief rule over the northwest and central India had begun in early 6th-century
  below the inscription are more Hindu sages, further below is ruined fragment that probably was an anthropomorphic carving of Vishnu to explicitly link the Varaha's underlying identity, states Becker.
  The temple was built by king Dhyana Vishnu. Cunningham and others found it in ruins with pillars broken that suggest its destruction at some point rather than natural erosion. The boar stood on. It is 13.83 feet (4.22 m) long, 11.17 feet (3.40 m) high and 5.125 feet (1.562 m) wide. It was inside a sanctum. Cunningham states that there was also a mandapa in front because of the ruins of pillars he saw. He found two carved 10 feet high pillars which were "remarkably fine specimens of Hindu decorative art".
  About 33 feet (10 m) in front of what is now the Varaha platform, there is another stone 6 feet by 3.5 feet. It is aligned with the temple alignment and set into the ground. On it is a large shell script inscription that remains undeciphered. It is probably the stone that formed the original temple's entrance. About 15 feet (4.6 m) in front of this entrance stone is the ruined leftovers of a torana (Hindu arched gateway). The gateway pillars are broken, but one of them survive
caption: The Eran Varaha boar statue with ruins in late 19th-century, showing the relief on the boar's body.
exif: {}