South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses c9.s15.1

c9.s15.1

Virabhadra is one of the many Saiva demi-gods (*ganas*).² He is said to have sprung from a lock of Siva’s hair when, as already stated, Siva heard of the suicide of his wife Satī in her father’s sacrificial fire and flew into a rage. From the fire of his anger came into existence this terrible form, as of Death manifest, who destroyed the sacrificial ceremonies of Daksha and slew Daksha himself. The *Pāncharātrāgama* describes Virabhadra as black in colour, having three eyes and holding in his four arms a sword, arrow, bow and club. He wears a garland of skulls and has sandals on his feet. A yellow garment is tied round his loins.³ The *Silparatna* describes him as having eight hands and riding on *vētāla* (a demon) surrounded by his *ganas* (followers). From the Brihadīsvara temple at Tanjore comes a sculptured panel (fig. 100) in which a woman, perhaps the wife of Daksha, is seen flying in alarm with upraised hands at seeing her husband decapitated by Virabhadra before her very eyes and the severed head thrown into the sacrificial fire-pit. One of the attendant priests with a ladle in his hand is also represented in the act of running away from the scene. A fine figure of Virabhadra with the bow and arrow, sword and shield, comes from Mudigondam in the Coimbatore district (fig. 101). The god is represented standing on a *padma-pitha* in front of a *prabhā-mandala*, “an arch of light”. At the edge of the pedestal on the right side is shown Daksha who was, however, revived by Siva with the head of a sheep substituted for the one that was burnt in the sacrificial fire.