Kurangun Relief is located in Fars Province of Iran and is a site of an Elamite rock reliefs.
This relief shows a God with horned crown sitting on a throne. Behind him sits a goddess who is crowned in the same way. Both hold snakes in one hand.
Around these two deities, other characters are seen in outline.
The scene is framed by two other reliefs that show standing figures. Since there are no inscriptions, dating of the reliefs is controversial.
The central scene is a classification of around 1700 v. Chr. Considered. The flanking reliefs date, however, probably more than 1,000 years later, in the eighth or seventh century BC.
The identification of the deities is uncertain in Iran.
Inschuschinak and napirisha have been proposed, since it is the classic pair of gods in the Elamite pantheon. However, this is a controversy.
However, such diety couples are seen in Vedic Religion as Vishnu and Lakshmi as they are seated on a coiled serpent in Vaikuntam.
The paramapadam in Vaishnavism is depicted with Vishnu (Narayana) sitting on a coiled serpent (Anantha Sesha) along with Goddess Lakshmi, Bhoodevi (Earth) etc and surrounded by other gods, rishis, his devotees.
According to vedas, when a cycle of creation comes to an end, a subtle residue of the destroyed universe still persists and is known as ‘Shesha’ (शेष).‘Shesha’ in Sanskrit is ‘what remains‘ or ‘what is left‘ or ‘the reminder‘ in vedic mathematics.
Vishnu’s serpent Shesha embodies the remains of the destroyed universe (destruction is depicted as a mathematical equation).
Iranian annals has no clear idea of what the Kurangan relief depicts though it is said that in the Elamite tradition the snake represented the earth.
It is possible then that the couple deity in the Kurangan relief though identified as Elaminite deity Insusinak and his consort Napirisa, are just distortions of the names and representation of Vishnu and Lakshmi along with their parivaar in Vaikuntam.
Elam Civilization
Elam (/ˈiːləm/) was an ancient Pre-Iranic civilization centered in the far west and southwest of what is now modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of what is now Khuzestan and Ilam Province as well as a small part of southern Iraq.
Situated just to the east of Mesopotamia, Elam was part of the early urbanization during the Chalcolithic period (Copper Age). The emergence of written records from around 3000 BC also parallels Mesopotamian history, where slightly earlier records have been found.
Their ancient reliefs (dating upto 3rd millenium BC) have depictions of a fish-tailed woman holding snakes, a ‘two horned’ figure (similar to Mahishasura) fighting with a goddess.
Many reliefs were found but one at the cliffs of Kurangan, the other at Naqs-i Rustam show similar scenes.
While the Naqs-i Rustam relief has almost entirely disappeared, the Kurangun relief, carved atop a cliff by the Fahlian River has been preserved.
