South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses c12.s2.80

c12.s2.80

The jewellery of images corresponds in most cases to the jewels of the present day worn by men as well as by women. Most of these have been mentioned in the above pages in the general descriptions of gods and goddesses. It has only to be noted that a very large number of them, such as necklaces, breast-plates, girdles, armlets, bracelets, wristlets, anklets, arm-rings, finger-rings, and toe-rings, made of gold and set with various gems,¹ are mentioned in the Tanjore inscriptions as having been presented to the images in the Brihadīśvara temple, by the great Chōla king Rājarāja I, in the first quarter of the eleventh century A.D. The different fashions of making up the hair seem to have also occupied the attention of Indian artists. The *jaṭās* (matted hair) of Siva, arranged generally in the form known as *jaṭāmakuta* (Plate I, No. 8), show other varieties such as *jaṭāmaṇḍala* (Plate II, No. 6), *jaṭābhāra* (No. 9) and *jaṭābandha* (No. 7). The terrible form of Siva, known as Pāsupatamūrti, has the *jaṭāmakuta* with flames of fire surrounding it (Plate I, No. 11). Naṭarāja’s *jaṭās*, whether flying in the air or tied up in a knot have a bunch of peacock’s feathers decorating them (Plate I, No. 5). Vishnu has generally a *kirīṭamakuta*, i.e., a crown (Plate I, No. 7). The goddesses either wear the crown called *karaṇḍamakuta* (Plate II, No. 8)² or have their hair parted in the middle like the Indian women of to-day. In figures of Jyēshthā, is seen a peculiar fashion of dressing the hair known as *vāsikābandha* (Plate I, No. 10). Other peculiar head-dresses, whose names are not known, also occur occasionally (see, e.g., Plate I, No. 9).