Wall reliefs of Ramayana
Ramayana is a popular theme for wall reliefs in the Hoysala temples. The primary reason behind this choice is the Vaishnava leanings of the royals. Vaishnavas are followers of Lord Vishnu and the Hoysala ruler, under the advice of Ramanujacharya, converted to Vaishnavism. His descendants continued with this tradition.
God Vishnu is known for his ten incarnations called the Dashavatara (Dasha - ten, Avatara - incarnation). He incarnated on earth whenever humanity was in danger by the demons. One of the popular incarnations is the seventh one, Rama. Vishnu incarnated as Rama to subdue the ten-headed Asura (demon) Ravana.
Stories in sculptures:
Birth of Rama and his brothers (narrated below)
Birth of Rama and his brothers
Putrakameshti Yaga
When a God incarnates on earth, the birth is usually marked with extraordinary events. The incarnation of Vishnu as Rama is no exception to this. King Dasharata was a mighty warrior and the emperor of the vast Kosala kingdom (present-day Uttar Pradesh and part of west Odisha). Despite having three wives, Dasharata did not have an heir to the throne. He was then advised by his chief preceptor Sage Vasishta to perform the complex Putrakameshti Yaga, a fire sacrifice, to beget a son. However, the sages and the Vedic scholars in the court of Dasharata insisted that only sage Shringa could perform the fire sacrifice, given the intricacies of the ritual.
Dasharata invited Sage Shringa, the son-in-law of King Romapada, to Ayodhya. Romapada and Dasharata shared a great friendship, and Romapada had adopted Dasharata’s daughter Shanta. This adoption made Rishi Shringa Dasharata’s son-in-law; thus, he accepted the King’s invitation to preside over the Yaga. This narration details how the renounced sages preferred to stay away from kings and kingdoms and entered that world of luxury only under compelling situations.
Image details:
Here, we can see the fire altar flanked by the sages on the left and King Dasharata on the right. The head priest is Shringa, as we can infer from Valmiki Ramayana.
The queens receive the divine porridge
When the Yaga was completed, a divine man rose from the fire carrying a golden pot filled with sweet porridge. He instructed Dasharata that the porridge was prepared in heaven with divine powers and that the queens should consume it to have sons. Dasharata distributed the porridge among his three queens. Quoting from the original Valmiki Ramayana - The king then gave half of the dessert to queen Kausalya, and he gave half of the half, i.e., one-fourth, to queen Sumitra. And to Kaikeyi he gave half of the remaining half, i.e., one eight of the dessert, with a desire to beget sons. Then thinking for a while, gave the remaining, i.e., one-eighth portion again to queen Sumitra. Thus, the king distributed the dessert to his wives differently.
With time, the first wife, Kausalya, gave birth to Rama, the last queen Kaikeyi to Bharata, and the middle queen Sumitra to twins Lakshmana and Shatrughna.
Depending on the amount of porridge received, the sons of Dasharata received different amounts of the divine essence of Vishnu. Rama got half the essence of Vishnu, Bharata got one-eighth the essence, and Lakshmana and Shatrughna the remaining.
Image description:
Here we can see three women holding pots with Dasharata sitting on a throne in the middle. Two queens on the right of the king and one on the right.
