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South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses c9.s3: III

South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses c9.s3

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III

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Round the sanctum of a Siva temple, on its outer wall, are usually enshrined in specially formed niches the images of Gaṇapati and Dakshināmūrti on the south, Lingōdbhava (or sometimes, Vishnu) on the west, and Brahmā and Durgā on the north. In the enclosing verandah round the central shrine may be installed the images of the sixty-three Saiva Saints, lingas which devout adherents might choose to establish for the merit of themselves or of their ancestors, the nine Planets (Navagrahas), which, since the time astrology was established in India, have been receiving divine homage, and a host of other gods and goddesses such as Kumāra (Skanda), Vīrabhadra, Bhairava, etc. Natarāja or Sabhāpati "the lord of the divine congregation" is placed in a separate shrine, generally the Sabhā-mandapa or "the assembly hall." The goddess Pārvatī, the consort of Siva, who receives all kinds of fanciful names and surnames according to local traditions, is also enshrined separately. Sometimes it is found that every important subordinate deity has a separate shrine for itself, smaller, of course, in size than the sanctum.

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It may be noted that, while worship is offered in the central shrine of a Siva temple only to the formless stone linga, for processional purposes images made of metal are used; and these are of various forms and go by various names, such as Sōmāskanda, Vrishārūdha, Gangādhara, Kalyānasundara, Ardhanāri, Bhikshātana, Natarāja, etc. Instances are not uncommon where images of Siva in one of his processional forms receives more attention from the worshippers than the linga itself. In Chidambaram, for example, the image of Natarāja receives more attention and is more famous than the movable linga of pebble which is known as Ratnasabhāpati, or the stone linga of Mūlasthāna. At Bhikshāndārkōyil in the Trichinopoly district the mendicant form of Siva is worshipped. Ardhanāri is the god worshipped at Tiruchchengōdu (Salem) and so is the bronze image of Somāskanda (under the name Tyāgarāja) worshipped at Tiruvārūr.

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FIG. 46.—Sahasra-linga ; Tiruvottiyūr.

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Before describing some of the popular Siva-images¹ it may be useful to give a general description of Siva when he is represented in the form of an image. The common name then applied to him is Rudramūrti.² He has four hands, of which the two upper ones hold the dhakkā (kettle-drum) and the deer, the two lower hands showing the abhaya and the varada postures. His matted hair is made up in the form of a crown (jatāmakuta) on whose left shines the crescent of the moon and whose right is decorated with the jewel known as arka-pushpa. The face of a woman (i.e., of the goddess Gangā representing the river Ganges) appears over the matted hair, on the right side. He has three eyes, which represent the Sun, Moon and Fire, the last being on the forehead. He is clothed with a tiger skin above his knees and wears an undergarment and a scarf and the usual ornaments, necklace and torque, girdle round the waist, wristlets, waist-zone, armlets, arm-rings, finger-rings set with gems, anklets, and the sacred thread. The left ear of the god wears a woman's ornament called lamba-patra, while the right wears a man's ornament called makara-kundala. The left side of the neck is marked with the blue scar (caused by his having swallowed the poison kālakūta³). This general form of Siva may be represented either standing or seated on the lotus-pedestal with an aureola, and with or without his consort Pārvatī on the left side. The pedestal may also sometimes be the mahā-pitha, when, instead of the aureola behind the image, there may be the celestial tree (kalpa-vriksha).

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¹ Sixteen of these are mentioned in the Silpasāra. They are :- Sukhāsana, Vaivāhika, Umāsahita (according to the Mayamata Umāskanda), Vrishārūdha, Tripurāntaka or Purāri, Natarāja, Chandrasēkhara, Ardhanāri, Harihara, Chandēśvara (Mayamata gives Chandēśānugraha), Kāmāri, Kālanāsa, Dakshināmūrti, Bhikshātana, Sadāśiva (Mayamata gives Mukhalinga) and Lingōdbhava. The Kārānāgama mentions twenty-five.

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² Hēmādri describes Rudra as riding on a bull and having five faces all of which are mild-looking, except the one on the right side of the central face. He has ten arms and wears garlands of skulls.

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³ See below, p. 137 f., under Srīkantha.

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Standing images of Siva generally belong to the class known as Ashtamūrtis or Ekādasa-Rudras. The former have generally four hands and three eyes and wear the jaṭāmakuta. The fore-arms exhibit the protecting and the boon-giving postures; while the hind arms hold the tanka and the antelope. The Ekādasa-Rudras are almost similar to Rudramūrti in form, with the black scar on the neck, the crescent on the head and the scarf of tiger-skin. In place of the dhakkā in the right upper hand is seen the axe (parasu). A form of Siva combining five bodies in one is known as Panchadēhamūrti. Though not found in any of the temples examined so far, it is often mentioned in the Tanjore inscriptions as having been installed in the Rājarājēsvara (i.e., the modern Brihadīsvara) temple by the Chōla king Rājarāja or his subordinates, in the first quarter of the eleventh century A.D. The Panchadēhamūrti consisted of five images, four of which stood in the four directions and the fifth was placed in the middle, its head being higher in level than the others.² One of these was called Aghōra. The linga with five faces called Panchamukha-linga is only the five-bodied Panchadēhamūrti translated in terms of the symbolical phallus.³ It has the heads of four Siva-images figured on its four sides. The illustration from Tiruvānaikkāval (fig. 47) does not show any face at the top. The Skānda-Purāna mentions a seated form of Siva called Mahākailāsa or Mahā-Sadāsiva which is represented with twenty-five faces and fifty hands, wears a garland of skulls and is clothed in tiger's skin.

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² Jaina images called Chaturmukha or Chaumukhi are often made of a single stone. The four identical images on the four sides are surmounted by a series of umbrellas common to all, which appear like the spire of a temple (see Epigraphia Indica, Vol. X, p. 115). The Buddhists also seem to have possessed such figures; see Nagendra Natha Vasu's Mayūrabhanja, p. 41.

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³ A linga placed at the entrance into an old Siva temple at Raichūr (Hyderabad State) shows a combination of five lingas, four on the sides and one at the top.

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