Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/175

Rh the cup which is the mundane egg, the wine which is the essence of creation." His faces (evidently five) are terrible to look at, like those of death, and threaten to swallow the universe.

Kālāgni-Rudra " the terrible or fiery Rudra " described in the Kāsyapa-Silpa, closely resembles Bhairava and is perhaps only another form of him. He holds the weapons sword and shield, the arrow and the bow and wears a red cloth. The illustration from Durgi (fig. 99) is very likely one of Kālāgni-Rudra.

Vīrabhadra is one of the many Saiva demi-gods (ganas)- He is said to have sprung from a lock of Siva's hair when, as already stated, Siva heard of the suicide of his wife Satī in her father's sacrificial fire and flew into a rage. From the fire of his anger came into existence this terrible form, as of Death manifest, who destroyed the sacrificial ceremonies of Daksha and slew Daksha himself. The Pāncharātrāgama describes Vīrabhadra as black in colour, having three eyes and holding in his four arms a sword, arrow, bow and club. He wears a garland of skulls and has sandals on his feet. A yellow garment is tied round his loins. The Silparatna describes him as having eight hands and riding on vētāla (a demon) surrounded by his ganas (followers). From the Brihadīsvara temple at Tanjore comes a sculptured panel (fig. 100) in which a woman, perhaps the wife of Daksha, is seen flying in alarm with upraised hands at seeing her husband decapitated by Vīrabhadra before her very eyes and the severed head thrown into the sacrificial fire-pit. One of the attendant priests with a ladle in his hand is also represented in the act of running away from the scene. A fine figure of Vīrabhadra with the bow and arrow, sword and shield, comes from Mudigondam in the Coimbatore district (fig. lOl). The god is represented standing on a padmapitha in front. of a prabhā-mandala, " an arch of light ". At the edge of the pedestal on the right side is shown Daksha who was, however, revived by Siva with the head of a sheep substituted for the one that was burnt in the sacrificial fire.