Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/168

148 Sarabha which is supposed to have been assumed by Siva in order to suppress the pride of Narasimha, the Man-lion incarnation of Vishnu. The Kāranāgama describes Sarabha as having eight legs, three eyes, long nails, two hands and a body glowing like fire. The image has a lion's face and two wings one of which is said to represent the fierce goddess Durgā and the other, Death. The illustration here reproduced (fig. 94) shows Sarabha trampling on the Man-lion.

Pāsupatamūrti is another fierce form of Siva. This is evidently the form in which he is worshipped by the sect of Pāsupata Saivas, who, according to Dr. Bhandarkar, came into prominence about the second century B.C. The Silpasāra describes Pāsupatamūrti as having ten arms and five faces. According to other Agamas the figure may have only four arms. It has a fierce face, knitted brows over its three eyes, and hair red like flames of fire, bristling erect on the head. The god holds in his right hand a trident pointing downwards and in the boon-giving palm of the left he also holds a skull (kapāla). Sometimes the handle of the trident is lightly held by both the lower arms, which do not then show the varada and the abhaya postures. In the back arms are seen the tanka and the sword. The protruding teeth and the sacred thread formed of a venomous serpent add to the fierceness of his appearance. For purposes of meditation, however, a milder form is adopted, in which, like Chandrasēkhara, the god is represented standing or seated with a smiling countenance, showing the trident and the abhaya in his two right arms and the rosary and the varada in the two left arms (fig. 95).

Two other terrible forms of Siva are Aghōramūrti and Rakshōghnamūrti. The latter has braided hair and a body besmeared with ashes. In one hand he holds a trident with which he is piercing the god Yama, who calls away unto him the victims of all cruel diseases. In another hand is a skull from which issues a blazing fire. The axe and the kettle-drum are other weapons held by him. With his formidable projecting teeth, knitted eyebrows and frowning face he is represented as feasting on corpses in the company of bhūtas, prētas and pisāchas in the burning ground, which is his usual dwelling place. I have not, however, seen any actual representation of this image in South-Indian temples. Aghōramūrti has four faces and eight hands. In these he holds the kuthāra (axe), Vēdas, noose, goad, kettle-drum, rosary, trident