Elements of Hindu Iconography v2.c16.s2.t2.1

v2.c16.s2.t2.1

THE name Chandraśēkharamūrti implies an image which has Chandra (the moon) as its head-ornament. How Śiva came to possess snakes on his body, the black buck and the paraśu in his hands, the Apasmāra-purusha or the demon under his feet, to wear the skins of the lion and the tiger on his loins and the skull and the moon tucked up in his crown is described in the Suprabhēdāgama thus :—When Śiva was passing by the slopes of the mountain Mēru without any garments, the wives of the Ṛishis fell in love with him and lost their chastity. The Ṛishis, wild with rage, performed incantations to kill Śiva, the seducer of their wives; from their ceremonial ground there came snakes, a kṛishṇa-mṛiga, an Apasmāra-purusha, a paraśu, a bull, a tiger, a lion and several other things. For destroying Śiva all these were discharged by the Ṛishis against him. The latter took into his hands for his sports the black-deer, the snakes and the paraśu; the Apasmāra-purusha was trampled under his feet and is always serving him as a foot-stool; the lion and the tiger were killed by Śiva and their skins worn by him as his garments, while the skull and the digit of the moon were placed on his jaṭāmakuṭa as ornaments. The Suprabhēdāgama adds further that all figures of Śiva should have the following characteristics, namely, three eyes, four arms, the crescent moon, the dhurdhura flowers, (dātura), snakes on the crown (jaṭāmakuṭa), the tiger-skin garment, the hāra, the kēyūra, yajñōpavita and kuṇḍalas adorning his person. Special figures of Śiva may have other objects about them than those mentioned just now.