South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses c8.s5.10

c8.s5.10

Another story of the boy Krishna is represented in his dance on the head of a serpent named Kāliya (the black). Kāliya was hiding in a pond in the Yamunā river and making the whole neighbourhood poisonous to all living beings. One day the cattle tended by Krishna and his companions strayed into this region and were thereby poisoned. Krishna then plunged into the pond and holding the viper by the tail in one hand began to dance heavily on his raised hoods. The demon writhed under the pressure of the god’s tiny feet, vomiting blood profusely from each of his several mouths, and was completely exhausted and overcome. Then at last the serpent Kāliya recognized the Lord and took himself away to a remote island in the far-off sea. The esoteric sense of this is clear. The serpent represents the embodiment of all that is vile and wicked in this world; the dance of Krishna represents the fight with evil and its final conquest by the Divine Spirit. Kāliya-Krishna is found only as a decorative figure in temples but not as the object of worship in the central shrine. As in the case of Bāla-Krishna, miniature figures of Kāliya-Krishna are often found among the images of worship in a Brāhmaṇa’s house. A copper idol representing this sport of Krishna was discovered some years ago among the treasure trove found at Kāttu-Edayāru in the South Arcot district (fig. 26). The figure has two hands, a jewelled crown and the usual ornaments. Being a copper image it may be inferred that the idol was used only for processions in the temple to which it originally belonged. According to the Silpasāra the right foot of Kālingamardana (i.e., Kāliya-Krishna) is slightly bent and the left raised up. Of the two arms the left is stretched out in the abhaya posture and the right holds the tail of the serpent. The figure is fully decorated with ornaments and is dark in colour. The illustration from Kāttu-Edayāru shows the same features except that the positions of the right and left legs are interchanged.