2. Visual Story-Telling in Text and Image: The Nāga as Inhabitant of the Cosmic Ocean and the Netherworld

Abstract

Just like many other ancient myths, the myth of the manifestation of the boar (varāha) has been reworked numerous times. It is retold in many texts, starting as early as the Vedas. It is the story of a god, first identified with Prajāpati and later with Viṣṇu, who becomes a boar in order to rescue the earth from the subterranean regions. He dives into the cosmic ocean, lifts the earth with his tusk, and brings her back to her original spot. The myth is often told in a cosmogonical narrative framework and introduces the creation of the universe. The boar manifestation is also visualized in material art from at least the fifth century and possibly even earlier. Many of these Varāha images do not simply depict the god in his boar aspect, but provide a visual narration of the myth’s climactic moment of Varāha lifting the earth. In this article, I explore the use of both text and image as means to narrate the Varāha myth. After providing an overview of relevant Varāha iconography, I focus on one particular element that is present in almost all images, but appears to have no textual counterpart: the inclusion of one or more Nāgas, mythical