Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/179

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SIVA

159

The figure of Daksha is of comparatively small stature, meant evidently to indicate by contrast, the huge form of Vīrabhadra.

The Silpasangraha mentions three varieties of Vīrabhadra (viz. sāttvic, tāmasic and rājasic) with two, four or eight arms.^[1] All are dark in colour and fierce looking. Seated figures of Vīrabhadra are called Yōga-Vīra, his standing figures, Bhōga-Vīra and those in a walking posture, Vīra-Vīra. In the first, Vīrabhadra holds a sword and shield and is seated with one leg folded on the pedestal and the other hanging down. In the second posture he exhibits the bow and arrow, sword and kataka. On the leg is worn the anklet of heroes. The head is adorned with a crown, in the middle of which is represented a linga. A garland of skulls decorates the neck. On the right side is the image of Daksha with folded arms. In the Vīra-Vīra figures, Vīrabhadra holds the trident, sword, arrow and the deer on the right side and the skull, shield, bow and the goad on the left. It may be noted that, while images of Vīrabhadra and independent temples erected for him are very common in the Telugu and Canarese districts, temples in the Tamil districts rarely contain his image, and shrines dedicated to him are still rarer. There is a Vīrabhadra temple at Madura,

XXIV

Kshētra
pāla

Images of Kshētrapāla often met with in the temples of Southern India are divided into three classes, according to the predominating qualities sattva, rajas and tamas. Those belonging to the first class have two or four hands; the second six and the third eight.^[2] All the figures, irrespective of the class to which they belong, are made to stand with level feet (samapāda). The general description of them is that they have three eyes which are round and protruding, red hair pointing upwards, serpent jewels, a girdle of bells round the waist and a necklace of skulls. They are naked and inspire awe with their fierce fangs (fig. 102). Kshētrapāla occupies an important place among the subsidiary deities in Siva temples. He is the chief guardian of the temple just as Chandēsa (described below) is its superintendent and

↑ Dr. Burgess's Elura Cave Temples, Plate XXII, Fig. 2, is a representation of Vīrabhadra with eight hands. The plate wrongly calls the figure Bhairava.
↑ One image of Kshētrapāla with eight arms and another of Bhairava, were set up in the Tanjore temple at the beginning of the eleventh century A.D. in connexion with the group of figures illustrating the story of the Saiva saint Siruttonda-Nāyanār; see below, p. 259, footnote 2. In the Panchanadēsvara temple at Tiruvādi near Tanjore is an image of Kshētrapāla, called Ālkondār, with eight hands, to which people attach much importance.

[1] Dr. Burgess's Elura Cave Temples, Plate XXII, Fig. 2, is a representation of Vīrabhadra with eight hands. The plate wrongly calls the figure Bhairava.

[2] One image of Kshētrapāla with eight arms and another of Bhairava, were set up in the Tanjore temple at the beginning of the eleventh century A.D. in connexion with the group of figures illustrating the story of the Saiva saint Siruttonda-Nāyanār; see below, p. 259, footnote 2. In the Panchanadēsvara temple at Tiruvādi near Tanjore is an image of Kshētrapāla, called Ālkondār, with eight hands, to which people attach much importance.

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