The Development of Hindu Iconography c19.s6.8.2

c19.s6.8.2

The figure holds in two of its left hands a triśūla, a padma, the third hand being in the varada pose; one of the right hands is broken, the other two holding a lotus and a mṛgāṅka (a deer symbol). Its legs are clad in shoes, and it is likely that the seven horses with their driver are present below (though this is not found in Hiralal's description). The boots on the legs and the two lotuses in the hands are unmistakable solar features, while the trident and deer symbols indicate the Śiva part of it. Bull carved in the left corner (evidently of the pedestal) and Garuḍa in the right corner may further emphasise that it combines in it along with Śiva element, the element of Viṣṇu. This figure is carved in the centre of the door (lintel) of a ruined temple, figures of various other deities of the Hindu pantheon being carved in the other sections of the door; the central position assigned to it proves that the temple was originally dedicated to the worship of the composite god.¹ But a very unique syncretistic image in which Sūrya and Śiva are the constituents is in the collection of the V. R. S. Museum, Rajshahi, which has been tentatively identified as ‘Mārttaṇḍa-Bhairava’ by K. C. Sarkar. It is a three-faced and ten-armed image of the 12th century A.D., found at Manda (Rajshahi), containing the usual accessories noticeable in a well-developed type of Sūrya figure of this part of India. Its central face is placid, the side ones being fierce;