Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/161

Rh axe) and the deer respectively. The locks are arranged in the form of a jatāmakuta and the goddess Gaurī stands on the left side. The accompanying illustration from Chidambaram (fig. 90) answers to this description of Tripurāntaka. The alternating positions of the leg, the existence or non-existence of the demon Apasmāra underneath one of them and the fashion of holding the bow and the arrow, yield five other forms of Tripurāntaka, who may also be represented with eight or ten arms. Sometimes (when with ten arms), the god is seated in a chariot with his right knee touching the sudhā, the left leg which is bent at the knee being placed firmly in front of the right. In the chariot, at its front, is seated the four-faced Brahmā and below him is a white bull drawing the car. A sandal-wood carving published in the Journal of Indian Art and Industry, Vol. XV, No. 119, fig. 12, shows the actual fight between Siva and the demon called Tripura.

Kirātārjunamūrti is that form of Siva in which he is supposed to have appeared before Arjuna, one of the heroes of the epic Mahābhārata, when the latter was doing penance to obtain from Siva a powerful weapon with which he could destroy his enemies. God Siva wished to try personally if his devotee Arjuna really deserved to wield the matchless weapon Pāsupata, whose presiding deity was himself. To this end Siva and Pārvatī assumed the forms of a hunter and a huntress and with their retinue of demons and hobgoblins attired for the chase, drove before them a wild boar, which rushed to attack Arjuna who was then performing his penance. Arjuna, the practised warrior, seized his bow and instantly shot the animal. Simultaneously also came another arrow from the psuedo-hunter Siva. Pierced by both the arrows, the animal died. The hunter cried out that the quarry was his and asked Arjuna how he dared to shoot at it. The royal hero of the Lunar race could not brook the insult from this wild hunter of the woods. A fierce fight between the two was the result. Arjuna was amazed to see that the hunter was more than his match. Arjuna's never failing arrows failed him now and he challenged the hunter to a hand-to-hand contest. Sore and beaten, Arjuna worshipped the clay linga, of the god Siva that he had before him, when, lo ! the flowers he threw on the linga fell on the person of the hunter. Arjuna struck the hunter at the head with his powerful bow called Gāndīva and drew blood. But the bow was mysteriously snatched away from him. In the end Arjuna was overcome by a gentle touch of the mighty god. Arjuna then knew him and begged pardon and the god gave him the desired weapon Pāsupata.