Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/185

Rh It must be noted that Nandīsa is a favourite deity of the Saiva puritans, the so-called Lingāyatas or Vīra-Saivas.

Bhringi, Bhringiriti or Bhringīsa is similarly a fervent devotee of Siva. So exclusive was he in his devotion that he is said to have ignored the goddess who was part and parcel of Siva. His sole business in life, to which he had pledged himself, was ever to circumambulate the linga of Siva and no one else. To test his faith the god assumed the hermaphrodite form of Ardhanāri in which the goddess, as already described, is not separated from the god. Bhringi was not baffled ; but assuming the form of a bee (bhringa) he bored into the united body and continued still to go round and round the Siva half of the hermaphrodite. The goddess Pārvatī was enraged and cursed him to become emaciated day after day. Bhringi, accordingly, grew very thin and was unable to support himself. With the grace of Siva he secured a third leg which supported him. Thus Bhringi is represented in pictures with three legs (fig. I05). An image of Bhringīsa with three arms and three legs is stated to have been set up in the temple at Tanjore by a subordinate of Rājarāja I in the eleventh century A.D.

Jvaradēva of Saiva mythology, who is supposed to have been the destroyer of the demon Bhasmāsura, is described in the Agamas as having three legs, three heads, six arms, nine eyes, and a dejected appearance. An image from Bhavāni in the Coimbatore district (fig. 106) answers to this description of Jvaradēva.

Ganapati, Ganesa or Vinayaka, the popular " belly god," is, as his name indicates, the chief of the Saiva ganas. He is said to be the eldest son of Siva and Pārvatī, to have three eyes, an elephant's head One of the popular stories explaining how Ganapati came to have the elephant's head is as follows : Once upon a time when Pārvati went to bathe, she made a figure of the turmeric which had been smeared over her body, gave it life and limbs and appointed it to keep watch at the door. Siva came to see Pārvati but was stopped at the door by the newly created guard. Siva in anger cut off the head of the figure. The goddess entreated him to revive her child. He agreed and said that the head of any living body sleeping with the head placed northward might be severed at once and placed on the trunk of the turmeric figure. Afl elephant was found sleeping in the way described. Its head was accordingly cut