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Elements of Hindu Iconography v4.c30: Arya or Hariharaputra

Elements of Hindu Iconography v4.c30

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English

Arya or Hariharaputra

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AITAREYABRAHMANA

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THE deity Ārya, Śāsta or Hariharaputra, so well known to the Drāviḍas is not familiar to the inhabitants of Northern India; even in the Drāviḍa country he is the favourite only of the Malayāḷam people. The country of the latter possesses as large a number of temples of Śāsta as the Tamil country has of Subrahmaṇya and it is an invariable rule in the Malayāḷam country that in every temple, be it of Śiva or of Viṣṇu, there must be in its south-west corner a shrine for Śāsta. He is considered by them as the guardian of the land and as such eight mountain tops along the Western Ghaṭs are surmounted by eight temples in which are set up eight images of Śāsta to protect the country on the west of the mountain ranges, inhabited by the Malayāḷis, from all external evils and misfortunes. In this country he is better known as Śāsta than as Hariharaputra or Ārya. In the Tamil country he is known by the name Hariharaputra or more frequently Ayyanār (a modification of Ārya). That Śāsta should have been a very common name and the deity was perhaps once better known by that name in the Tamil country is deducible from the fact that in all examples in Grammars of declension, inflexion, etc., the subject of a sentence is Śāttan (Śāsta), just as the Sanskrit Grammarians usually employ the name of Dēvadatta. The name Śāsta or its corruption is not borne by men in the Tamil country, but one can meet with persons of that name by scores in the Malayāḷam country.

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This deity which is very peculiar to the Drāviḍa country does not appear to have been known to the region north of the Gōdāvarī. In no early Sanskrit work is the deity mentioned. Even the dictionaries do not record this name and give its origin. In the Viṣṇupurāṇa we hear that, Viṣṇu, seeing that there ensued a quarrel between the Dēvas and Asuras over the distribution of the amṛita (ambrosia) obtained by churning the ocean of milk, assumed the form of a charming damsel, distributed the precious article among the Dēvas, the Asuras being all the while dazed by the enchanting beauty of the maiden and oblivious of the cause of their quarrel. It is in the Śrī Bhāgavata that we learn, for the first time that Hara fell in love with Viṣṇu in his form of Mōhinī. From

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the union between Hara and Hari, Ārya, Śāsta or Hariharaputra is said to have been born. The Suprabhēdāgama very distinctly mentions that Śāsta was born of Mōhinī, the form assumed by Viṣṇu for the purpose of distributing the amṛta among the gods when it was churned from the milk-ocean, by the union with her of Hara. That this is a deity peculiarly Dravidian and has been taken into the fold of the Āryan pantheon at a later period goes without contradiction. At present Hariharaputra is treated in the Tamil country as a village deity and is mostly worshipped by the lower classes and the pūja in the temple of Hariharaputra or Ayyanār (or Ayyanārappan) is performed by a Śūdra. The Pādmasamhitā states that the pūja in the temple of Ārya should be performed by a Pāraśava; we know from other sources that a Pāraśava is an anulōma born of a Brāhmaṇa father and a Śūdra mother. But somehow Ayyanār, like the more tāmasic forms of Dēvi such as Kāḷi, which are worshipped by the lower classes in the Tamil country, is made pūja to by the Brāhmaṇas in Malabar.

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This deity is called Śāsta because he is able to control and rule over the whole world; etymologically therefore, the word means a ruler of a country, and is sometimes applied to teachers and fathers. The *Amarakośa* applies the name to Buddha also. The Tamil Nighaṇṭus call him by the additional names Sātavāhana, the rider of the white elephant, Kāri, the wielder of the weapon known as *śeṇḍu*, the consort of Pūraṇa and Puṣkalā, the protector of Dharma and Yōgi; they also state that the vehicle of Śāsta is the elephant and the crest of his banner a cock. The names, rider of the white elephant, Yōgi, the protector of Dharma coupled with the significance of Buddha applied to Śāsta in the *Amarakośa* incline one to conclude that Buddha as conceived and worshipped in the Tamil country was ultimately included in the Hindu Pantheon and a Purāṇic story invented for his origin at a later period of the history of Hindu Iconology. The name Sātavāhana is also very noteworthy as it has been assumed by a dynasty of powerful kings of the earlier centuries of the Christian era.

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The descriptions of the image of Śāsta or Ārya are found given in the *Amśumadbhēdāgama*, the *Suprabhēdāgama* and the *Kāraṇāgama*. The figure of Śāsta should have four arms and three eyes, and a peaceful countenance; its colour should be golden yellow and it should be draped in silk garments. It must be seated upon a *padmāsana*. The front right and left hands should be held in the

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abhaya and varada poses respectively and the back right and left hands should carry a *khaḍga* and a *khēṭaka* respectively. This is the description given in the *Amśumadbhēdāgama*. The *Suprabhēdāgama* has a very different description altogether; it states that the figure of Śāsta should have only two arms and two eyes and a dark complexion. It should be adorned with all ornaments and a white *yajñōpavīta*. The arms and legs should be kept folded: in the right hand there should be a crooked stick (known in Tamil as the *śeṇḍu*) and in the left fruits and tender leaves of plants (*pallava*). The body of this deity should be like that of a *bhūta*, with a big belly. The hair on his head should be jet black in colour. Śāsta should be represented as playing with dogs, sheep and fowls. He has two wives named Madanā and Varṇani; the figures of these should be sculptured one on either side of that of Śāsta, with large breasts and adorned with all ornaments. To the left of Śāsta there should be the figure of Damanaka—who he is, is not mentioned—of ill-looking features.

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The *Kāraṇāgama* agrees with the *Amśumadbhēdāgama* in taking Śāsta as the son of Mōhinī by Hara, but states, with *Suprabhēdāgama*, that Śāsta should have only two arms and two eyes, and a dark complexion. Śāsta should be seated on a *pīṭha*, with his left leg hanging down the seat and the right one folded and rested upon the seat vertically. On the knee of this latter leg should rest the elbow of the stretched left arm. In the right hand there should be a *vajradaṇḍa*, which is a crooked stick (note the *vajra* a characteristic weapon of the Bauddha Bōdhisatva). The figure of Śāsta should be of youthful and peaceful appearance. The hair of his head should be like blue-black ink and be spread out. His vehicle is the elephant as also is the crest on his banner. He should have by his side a blitheful damsel. At the end of the description, it is mentioned that the colour of Śāsta might be blue, white or dark, his vehicle the bull, that he might have four arms and that the crest on his banner a cock.

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The same authority states that if Ārya is to be represented as a *Yōgi* he should be sculptured as seated in *yōgāsana*; if as a student of the Vēdas, he should wear a *pavitra* (a ring made of *kuśa* grass) on his fingers, and wear his upper cloth on his shoulder in the *upavīta* fashion and be seated in the *vīrāsana* posture. If Śāsta is to be shown as seated in the *sukhāsana* fashion, the posture should be what is known as *sukhāsana*, the right foot of the bent right leg resting upon the thigh of the left leg which should be hanging. The gaze of Sukhāsana-Ārya should be fixed on his right foot.

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Fig. 1. Śāstā : Bronze : Śāstānkōṭṭai.

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Fig. 2. Śāstā : Stone : Tirupparaiyāru.

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Fig. 1. Gajarūḍha Śāstā: Bronze: Valuvūr.

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Fig. 2. Śāstā: Bronze: Tiruppālatturai.

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Four photographs are given in illustration of the images of Śāsta. Fig. 2, Pl. CXXXIX is the photograph of an image to be found in the Śiva temple at Tirupparaiyāru in N. Travancore. This image is seated with its right leg bent and rested in a vertical position and the left leg bent and rested in a horizontal position on the seat. The right hand of the figure is in the varada pose and rests upon the right thigh; the left arm which is slightly bent is made to rest upon the left thigh. The image is adorned with all kinds of ornaments. This is the Virāsana-Ārya. The second photograph fig. 2, Pl. CXL is of a bronze image belonging to the temple at Tiruppālatturai in the Tanjore district. This image is also seated in the virāsana posture, with his left arm, which is stretched out, resting upon the knee of the left leg which is bent and kept resting vertically on the seat. The right leg is hanging down the seat which is a padmāsana. The right hand is held in the kaṭaka pose, to receive in it a śeṇḍu stick. The hair on the head of this image is spread out fan-wise in a circle. The third photograph fig. 1, Pl. CXL, is of another bronze image to be found in the temple at Vaḷuvūr also in the Tanjore district. It represents Śāsta as seated upon an elephant which has on each side a double tusk unlike the mundane elephant. The figure of Śāsta in this instance is sculptured exactly like the image of Tiruppālat-turai. The fourth illustration fig. 1, Pl. CXXXIX, the original of which is enshrined in the temple at Śāstānkōṭṭai in Travancore is of a standing figure of Śāsta. Here, he is represented with a pair of arms, which carry the *dhanus* and *bāṇa* respectively and as standing erect. On the two upright posts of the highly ornamented *prabhāvaḷi* are sculptured the two *dēvīs* of Śāsta, the right one of them carrying, as usual in the case of an image attended by two *dēvīs*, a *padma* and the left one a *nīlōtpala* flower.

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