South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses c10.s3.35

c10.s3.35

¹ *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. XXII, p. 68. It may be noted that Mr. T. A. Gopinatha Rao in his *Elements of Hindu Iconography* (p. 391 f) considers the figures of Subrahmanya and his consorts worshipped in one of the chief rock-cut shrines of the temple to be Jyeṣṭhā with her bull-faced son on one side and her fair daughter on the other. The figures are, indeed, much worn out and their features are indistinct; nor are the crow-banners characteristic of Jyeṣṭhā, clearly visible. Two cocks, however, the banner of Subrahmanya, engraved on the rocky side walls of the same shrine and contemporaneous with the images, prove beyond doubt that the group is one of Subrahmanya and his two consorts and not of Jyeṣṭhā. The shrine of the latter goddess, referred to in the inscription, is in a different compartment, in the lower storey of the same rock-cut temple. At Ānamalai, not far from Madura, is a similar rock-cut shrine of Subrahmanya but with only one goddess. The cock-banner of the god is, again, very clearly shown on the side walls, as in the Tirupparangunram shrine. People call it Sramanakōyil "the temple of Sramana (i.e., a Buddhist or a Jaina)" though the actual name must have been Saravanan-kōyil, "the temple of Saravanan" which latter name is connected with Saravanōdbhava, a synonym of Skanda-Subrahmanya.