Le sanglier qui danse: Étude Iconographique d’un Avatāra de Visnu
Dancing Varāhas: Iconographical Study Of A Visnu’s Avatāra

Summary/Abstract: From the XVth century in the South of India we encounter strange representations of Varāha depicted as dancing upon a nāga, comparable to images of Krsna dancing upon the snake Kāliya. Such a dance never appears to be mentioned in the corpus of texts known to us. But after surveying the texts and the archaeological records we are able to propos an explanation for this type of image. From the most ancient texts, the boar god plays the role of a demiurge and he was always represented as such. His fight against the demon Hiranyāksa, however, seems to be a secondary element of the Avatāra legend. The first figures to be found in the archaeological record are late and rare. In the most ancient of these representations, the cosmogonic aspect of the boar is stressed, the universe being suggested by the presence of a nāga, supporting the foot of the boar. This nāga, appears in some of the iconographical texts, where he is sometimes referred to as Śesa; it is never mentioned in the mythical accounts.

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