South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses c12.s2.56

c12.s2.56

Among the human beings who have attained sainthood may be included the great religious reformers such as Sankarāchārya, Rāmānujāchārya, Madhvāchārya and others. The first is represented as a *sannyāsin* (mendicant) with a bald head and a body besmeared with ashes. He holds a book in his left hand and shows the *chinmudrā*, the teaching pose of fingers, in the other. The staff and the water-pot (*kundikā*) which are the symbols of the *sannyāsins*, are found placed by his side. Seated on the tiger's skin in the *padmāsana* posture he is surrounded by attendant pupils. Sankarāchārya may also be found decorated with a necklace of *rudrāksha*-beads which are sacred to Siva. The illustration from Tiruvottiyūr (fig. 159) shows Gaulīsvara (Gauda-pāda ?), the teacher's teacher of Sankarāchārya, with four arms, occupying the highest seat. Below him to the right is Sankarāchārya and below him on the pedestal are depicted the latter's four pupils. Rāmānujāchārya has the *sānjali-mudrā*, i.e., hands folded together over the breast in a worshipping posture, the triple staff (*tridanda*) and a head-dress. He wears the Vaishnava caste marks *ūrdhvapundra* (or *nāmam*) made of white clay and red pigment (fig. 160 (d)). Vēdānta-Dēsika (fig. 160 (b)) is also a Srī-Vaishnava teacher of great fame. Madhvāchārya, like Sankara, is a bald-headed *sannyāsin* with the *chinmudrā*, the book, the staff and the *kundikā*. He wears the caste mark *ūrdhvapundra* and the Vaishnava symbols of conch, discus, etc., made on his body either of sandal-paste or of the yellow clay called *gōpichandana*.