Narayana (Anantashayana)

Vishnu as the cosmic being who rests on the waters. Manusmriti derives the name from the waters (nara) that were his first resting place (ayana); the Narayana Sukta of the Taittiriya Aranyaka calls him the highest reality; the Mahabharata's Narayaniya has him contain Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva. The Anantashayana icon shows him asleep on Shesha with Lakshmi at his feet and Brahma on the navel lotus; the 9th-century open-air relief at Saranga in Odisha, over fifteen metres long, is the best-known carved example.