Studies in Indian Art c13.s2.19

c13.s2.19

Śiva is conceived as *aṣṭamūrti*, the Eight-formed Deity. It was a Vedic conception explaining the principle of manifestation through the eight-forms of Agni, also called the Eight Vasus, whose names are given in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* (VI. 1. 3. 10-18, *tānyetāni aṣṭau Agnirūpāṇi*). For the Purāṇa writers the theme of Agni manifesting as Rudra was a popular one, and they have elaborately described the eight forms of Śiva. Kālidāsa enumerates them in the first verse of the drama *Abhijñāna-Śākuntala*, and says that they are the ‘eight visible forms’ (*pratyaksha tanu*) of Śiva. The list includes the Five Elements, the Sun and Moon, and the *Yajamāna*. Although at first sight couched in sacerdotal terminology, the whole conception is rational and clear; the Five Elements represent the gross body or the material form; the Sun and the Moon symbolize the Twin forms of energy or the Life Principle expressed as *prāṇa* and *apāna*; the *yajamāna* represents the mind as explained in the *Śatapatha* (*mano yajamānasya rūpam*, XII. 8. 2.4). Manifestation is thus a combination of Mind, Life and Matter, where Life results from the union of Matter with Mind: