Elements of Hindu Iconography v2.c16.s8.t3: Yoga-Dakshiṇāmūrti
Elements of Hindu Iconography v2.c16.s8.t3
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Yoga-Dakshiṇāmūrti
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This form of Dakshiṇāmūrti may be sculptured in three different ways. In the first, the two legs of the image should be crossed as in the svastikāsana; while the front right hand should be held near the chest in the yōgamudrā pose and the front left hand should rest upon the lap in the characteristic yōgic posture. In the back right hand there should be the akshamālā, and in the back left hand a lotus flower. The gaze must be fixed on the tip of the nose: and a few jaṭās should hang over the shoulders. This image of Dakshiṇāmūrti should be surrounded by ṛishis who should be adoring him.
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In the second mode of representation of Yōga-Dakshiṇāmūrti the left leg of the figure should be bent in the utkuṭikāsana posture; surrounding the body of the figure and its left leg should be a *yōgapaṭṭa*. The right leg should be hanging down the seat. The front left arm should be kept stretched and be resting by the elbow on the knee of the bent left leg. The rest of the description is identical with that given for the first form.
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Yōga-Dakshiṇāmūrti (locally known as Gauḷīśvara) : Stone : Tiruvorriyūr.
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The third form is required to be sculptured thus: The two legs are bent and crossed in a more or less vertical position (as in the figure of Yōga-Nārasiṃha), and round these and the body is passed a *yōgapaṭṭa* to keep the legs in position. The front two arms are stretched and kept resting on the knees. In the back right hand there should be the *akṣamālā* and in the back left hand a *kamaṇḍalu*. The *jaṭās* should be disposed of in the form of a *jaṭāmaṇḍala* and in it should be the crescent moon, a snake and other objects. The colour of the body of this aspect of Dakṣiṇāmūrti is white, but his neck should be represented as of black colour. The image should be adorned with all ornaments including a number of snake ornaments.
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The illustration on Pl. LXXVI, is a well-carved figure of Śiva in the *yōgāsana* posture. It is enshrined in a fane situated in the south *prākāra* of the Śiva temple at Tiruvorriyūr. The inscriptions on the walls of this shrine refer to the image set up in it as Paḍampakkanāyinār and state that it was set up in the fifth year of the reign of the Chōḷa king Virarājēndradēva (about A.D. 1067-8). From the position of this shrine with reference to the main central shrine, that is, to the south side of it, and from the posture and other features of the image itself enshrined therein, it may, without fear of contradiction, be stated to be the first form of Jñāna-Dakshiṇāmūrti described above. The figure has a well executed jaṭā-makuṭa ornamented with jewelled discs and bands round it; kuṇḍalas in the ears; and hāra and necklace of rudrāksha seeds and yajñōpavīta on the chest. The forearms are adorned with a number of bracelets and the upper arm with kēyūras. The legs are crossed one over the other so as to bring the soles up; this is exactly the yōgic āsana called the svastikāsana. In the back right hand there appears to have been a śūla, whose shaft alone now remains, the head being broken; in the back left hand is the kapāla; the front right hand is held in the chinmudrā pose and the front left hand also in the pose characteristic of an expounder of sciences. This image now goes by the inexplicable name of Gauḷīśvara and near it and to its proper right is set up in more recent times the figure of Saṅkarāchārya; on the base of the seat of this latter are carved the figures of his four great disciples.
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Yōga-Dakshiṇāmūrti: Stone: Conjeevaram.
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The second form is illustrated by Pl. LXXVII. The original of this photograph is in the Kailāsanāthasvāmin temple at Conjeevaram. In this sculpture Śiva has his left leg bent and rested vertically on the seat and this leg and the body are bound together by the *yōgapaṭṭa*. The front right hand is held in the *yōgamudrā* pose, while the front left hand is in the *abhaya* pose. The back right hand keeps an *akṣamālā*, and the back left hand *agni* or a lotus flower.[*] The right leg is hanging down the seat. Śiva is as in the previous instances, seated under the shade of a banyan tree and below his seat are deer lying, with their heads lifted up to Śiva. Below his right elbow is a cobra with an uplifted hood, also gazing at the enchanting figure of Śiva. Above the head of Śiva are seen seated a pair of *bhūtas* on either side. On three niches situated on either side respectively of Dakshiṇāmūrti (not shown in the picture) are *rishis* sitting
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[*] At some later period of the history of this temple, when the surface of the stones of which the sculptures are composed began to peel off, they have all been covered with thin coat of plaster. The plasterer not being able to make out the exact nature of some badly injured objects has shaped slightly different things in their stead: thus, a lotus flower that is required by the *āgamās* seems to have been evidently mistaken for the most likely object in the back left hand of Śiva, namely, *agni*.
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and listening to the preaching of the Dharma or Yōga by Śiva.* The image whose photograph is reproduced as Pl. LXXVIII is almost similar to that on Pl. LXXVII; the back right hand, in this instance, carries a cobra. Dakṣiṇāmūrti is seen sitting here upon a bhadrapīṭha placed upon a hill.
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Pl. LXXIX is the photograph of the image of Dakṣiṇāmūrti to be found in the Siva temple at Nañjaṅgōḍu in the Mysore Province. This represents, only so far as its sitting posture goes, the third form the Yōga-Dakṣiṇāmūrti. The āsana assumed is that form of utkuṭikāsana described under the third form. The legs are bound with the body with a yōgapaṭṭa. But in fact the image is a combination of all aspects of Dakṣiṇāmūrtis—namely, the Yōga, the Viṇā-dhara and the Vyākhyāna forms; it is the Yōga form because its sitting posture is the yōgic;
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∗ Mr. Alex. Rea in his "The Pallava Architecture" describes a panel containing the images of Dakṣiṇāmūrti and the rishis thus: "in this panel, eleven seated sages are listening to the exhortations of Śiva, who is represented in a panel on the north side of the central shrine. He is armed with different symbolical weapons, and seems to be preaching war" (!) Such mistakes are fairly common in his publications and hence need no serious refutation; nor are his drawings reliable, for, to quote an instance, a śaṅkha in the hand of an image is wrongly represented in the drawing as a padma.
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Yōga-Dakshiṇāmūrti : Stone : Conjeevaram.
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the Vīṇādhara because it carries in its back left hand a vīṇā, and Vyākhyāna because its front right hand is in the chinmudrā pose and the front left hand carries a book. The figure is seated below a banyan tree and the lāñchhana (the totemistic emblem), the bull, is carved in a counter-sunk surface on the pedestal, in front. Below the seat and in the middle of it is seated a Liṅgāyat priest who holds in his left hand a liṅga. On either side of this guru are his disciples with their hands in the añjali pose. A prabhāvaḷi is placed behind the figure of Dakṣiṇāmūrti on the jambs of which are standing one on each side a ṛishi with the hands in the añjali pose.
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VĪṆĀDHARA-DAKṢIṇĀMŪRTI.
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As a great teacher of music, both instrumental and vocal, Śiva is worshipped in the form of Vīṇādhara-Dakṣiṇāmūrti. The description of the image of this aspect of Dakṣiṇāmūrti is found in the Kāmika, the Aṁśumadbhēda and the Kāraṇāgamas. The Aṁśumadbhēdāgama states that the left leg should be kept in the utkutika posture and the two front hands should hold the vīṇā; the rest should be exactly similar to the description of the Vyākhyānamūrti. According to the Kamikāgama the Gāna-Dakṣiṇāmūrti should have his front right and left hands held in the kaṭaka pose, the former with its palm facing below and the latter facing above. The *kaṭaka* pose being slightly different in form, the *Kāmikāgama* calls the pose the *sarpa-kara*. The left arm should be lifted up and the right arm lowered below, so as to hold in proper position the long-handled musical instrument, the *vīṇā*. The *vīṇā* should be held at the top by the left hand and by the right hand at the lower end; the resonating body of the instrument should rest on the right thigh. The lower right hand should be manipulating the strings of the instrument.
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The measurement of the *vīṇā* is next given as follows: the *vīṇā* should be projecting three *aṅgulas* beyond the right thigh and four *aṅgulas* above the left *kaṭaka-hasta*. The distance between the two points specified above is the length of the *vīṇā-daṇḍa* or the hollow shaft of the instrument whose width at the top should be two *aṅgulas*. The gourd resonator attached at the lower end should be six *aṅgulas* in diameter and three *aṅgulas* in height.
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A few general observations are added also about the figures of Dakṣiṇāmūrti. It is stated that the face of Dakṣiṇāmūrti should be turned towards the hand held in the *sandarśanamudrā* pose; also the gaze of the god may be fixed on this hand. Surrounding the figure of Dakṣiṇāmūrti there should be different kinds of animals and reptiles, sages (*munis*)
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Vīṇādhara-Dakṣiṇāmūrti: Bronze: Madras Museum.
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Viṇādhara-Dakṣiṇāmūrti: Bronze: Vaḍaraṅgam.
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and ascetics (*siddhas*), *vidyādharas*, *bhūtas* and *kinnaras*; Śiva should be seated in a place on the mountain where all sorts of flowering trees and plants grow luxuriantly and under a banyan tree, on the right side of its trunk, on a jewelled *pīṭha* covered with a tiger’s skin and he should present a benign look: and the *rishis* the ancestors of the Śivadvijas (Śaiva brāhmaṇas) should be seated round him. The figure of Dakshiṇāmūrti may be sculptured as seated or standing surrounded or not by *rishis*, with his legs either resting or not upon the Apasmāra-purusha and with or without the banyan tree, *bhūtas* and others mentioned above.
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Two photographs, Pls. LXXX and LXXXI, are reproduced in illustration of the Viṇādhara-Dakshiṇāmūrti; both of them are identical in shape and in the details of moulding.* Śiva is seen standing with his right leg kept firmly on the ground, while the left leg is placed a little forward slightly bent. The front two hands are held in the *kaṭaka* pose, the left one looking up and the right one looking down. Evidently a separately cast *vīṇā* was intended to be inserted in the hands whenever wanted and hence this instrument is not to be seen in either image. The back right hand carries a *paraśu* and the back left one a *mṛiga*. There are all sorts of elaborately sculptured ornaments on the person of the figures. The first figure (Pl. LXXX) belongs to the Madras Museum, while the second (Pl. LXXXI) is to be found in the temple at Vaḍaraṅgam in the Tanjore district. The second, an earlier piece of sculpture, is of very high artistic value; the first is of rather inferior workmanship.
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∗ These two images figure on Pls. XV and XVI of Mr. O. C. Gangoly’s *South Indian Bronzes*. Besides these, he has reproduced two other photographs of the same aspect of Śiva on Pls. I and XIV. In every detail all the four figures agree; for instance, in all, the right leg stands straight on the ground while the left one is slightly bent; all four have four arms, the back hands of which carry the *paraśu* and the *mṛiga* and the two front hands are held in the *kaṭaka* poses required in the *āgamas* and are evidently meant to keep a *viṇā* in them; the very same ornaments, head-gear and clothing are to be seen on all the images. In the case of Pl. I, there is a slight divergence from
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the description of the *āgamās*, namely, the left leg, instead of being placed directly on the ground, is held supported on its head by a *bhūta*—which deviation is one of the artistic embellishments of the master-sculptor. In spite of the striking similarity, nay identity among the four images, they are called by different names: thus, the figure on Pl. I is said to be Kālasamhāra or Kālakālamūrti; that on Pl. XIV, Gaṅgādhara, that on Pl. XX, Chandraśēkhara or Sōmadhāri; and lastly; that on Pl. XVI, Pramēśwara Swami (*sic*). It is not quite clear either from the *dhyāna-ślōkās* quoted or from the short descriptive notes added to each if the identifications are justifiable at all.
Cites (3)
- Kāmikāgama — Sanskrit
- Kāśyapaśilpa — Sanskrit
- Kāraṇāgama — Sanskrit