Elements of Hindu Iconography v4.c30.15

v4.c30.15

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.