Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.4308

c9.4308

There are four other figures of Dakṣiṇāmūrti, such as the explanation, knowledge, yoga (or meditation, contemplation and other ways of union with the Universal Soul) and Viṇādhara (carrying a lute). A few other forms are Bhikṣāṭaka (begging alms), Kapāladhārī (wearing skulls), Gaṅgādhara (bearing the Gaṅges), Ardhanārīśvara (half of whom is a woman), Vṛṣabhavāhana (seated on a bull), Viṣabhakṣaka (eating poison) etc. The figures of Sadāśiva, Maheśa, Ekādaśarudras (eleven Rudras), Vidyeśvara and Mūrtyaṣṭaka are seen occasionally here and there. There are scriptures describing these figures.