Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/117

Rh Siva also cut off the head which uttered the lie. The flower ketaki too, which abetted the crime, was excluded from the flowers dear to Siva. On an apology being offered, the latter was however accepted, as a special case, during the worship on the night of the Sivarātri festival which falls on the fourteenth day of the dark half of Māgha (January-February) in each year and is held sacred in honour of the linga- manifestation of Siva.

Perhaps, images called Ēkapādamūrti or Ēkapada-Trimurti, in which the gods Brahmā and Vishnu, with folded hands and characteristic symbols, are represented as proceeding out of the body of Siva at his waist as in the Tiruvottiyūr image (fig. 59) or from behind his knee as in the image from Tiruvānaikkāval (fig. 60) are either developments of Lingōdbhava wherein the superiority of Siva over the two other members of the Hindu Triad was established, or an invention of the Indian sculptor in which is symbolized the underlying unity of the three gods. The Kāranāgama mentions Ēkapāda murti as one of the sportive forms of Siva and describes him as having one foot, three eyes and four arms in which are seen the tanka and deer and the varada and the abhaya postures. On the right and left sides of Siva, almost touching his shoulders, are Brahmā and Vishnu holding their symbolical weapons in two hands and worshipping Siva with the other two.

The single foot which is the characteristic feature of these figures, is, in the case of the Tiruvanaikkaval image, placed on the back of the bull. In it are also seen the vehicle of Brahma, viz., the swan, at the right bottom and, at the corresponding left bottom, the standing Garuda vehicle of Vishnu and a sage perhaps Narada. Apparently Ekapadamurti has to be connected with Ajaikapad, a name given in the Rig-Veda to one of the Ekadasa-Rudras.

The story of Lingōdbhava introduces us to another form of Siva, known as Bhikshatana, very often seen in South-Indian temples. When Siva cut off one of the heads of

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