The Development of Hindu Iconography c19.s6.7.2

c19.s6.7.2

A mediaeval sculpture from Bihar (now in the collection of the Indian Museum) does not contain all these elaborate features, but the right and left parts of the combined image stand for Hara and Hari, and the Hara aspect is emphasised by the ūrdhaliṅga sign not always present in such images. In such composite icons, the left side is invariably assigned to Hari or Viṣṇu. Viṣṇu was Mohinī, the beautiful female form assumed by him while distributing nectar churned out of the ocean by the Devas and the Asuras to deprive the latter of their share of it by bewitching them with her beauty; Śiva fell in love with this aspect of Viṣṇu. Another very interesting composite sculpture from Bihar (now an exhibit in the Gupta Gallery of the Archaeological Section of the Indian Museum) shows the four-armed Hari-Hara in the centre, the back hands carrying a trident and a conch-shell, and the front hands a skull-cup (?) and a discus; he bears the other usual features, and there are some attendants by his side. But what is unique in this sculpture is the presence of standing Buddha and Sūrya in the right and left sides of Hari-Hara. The halos round the heads of Buddha and Sūrya (the former stands on a double-petalled lotus and the latter on his seven-horsed chariot driven by Aruṇa) and the separate sections of the pedestal allotted to them prove that they are no mere attendants here, but are really cult objects for worship.