Dear Colleagues,

On the outer cover of the printed edition of the Nyāyabhāṣya by Padmaprasāda Śāstrī and Harirāma Śukla that was published as vol. 42 of the Kashi Sanskrit Series (fourth ed. 1990), I found an iconographic depiction of the philosophical system of Nyāya as a human figure with a lion face, holding a sūtra and a dhvaja in the right and left hand, respectively (see attached image). The image is accompanied by an anuṣṭubh-caption, which reads atasīpuṣpasaṅkāśo nyāyo jñeyo vipaścitā / siṃhāsya dakṣiṇe sūtraṃ dhvajaṃ vāmakare dadhan //, suggesting that the colour of the personified nyāya-system is light blue.

Quite interestingly, the printed edition of the Mānavadharmaśāstra together with Kullūkabhaṭṭa’s commentary, which was like the before-mentioned edition of the Nyāyabhāṣya published by the Chaukhambha Sanskrit Sansthan, has a similar depiction of dharmaśāstra which also is accompanied by a caption (see attached image).

I was completely unaware of any personifications and iconographic representations of South Asian knowledge systems and wonder what the source(s) of the stanza on Nyāya may be. Are these two cases of personification and iconographic representation of knowledge systems exclusively related to the Chaukhambha Sanskrit Sansthan, or do they represent a broader tradition?

I would greatly appreciate any help you could give me with this.

With many thanks in advance and best wishes,

Philipp