Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/238

218 for the goddess Durgā and one for Jyēshthā were caused to be made in that temple. At Kukkanūr in the Nizam's Dominions, there is a celebrated Brahmanical temple dedicated to Jyēshthā. In Southern India her worship nowadays is much neglected, if not altogether avoided, she being supposed to be the goddess of misfortune and poverty.

In contrast to the ugly and fearsome goddesses mentioned above, there exist in the Hindu Pantheon other Saivite goddesses who are described as mild and extremely beautiful. Among these may be mentioned Bālā-Tripurasundarī of dazzling brilliance, " like a thousand suns bursting forth at the same time " ; Saubhāgyabhuvanēsvarī, of red hue, a jewelled crown, a smiling face and heaving breasts, who holds a pot of gems in one hand and a red lotus in the other (fig. 136) and who places her right foot on a treasure of gems ; Annapūrna of two or four arms who, in the former case, holds gracefully in one hand a jewelled vessel containing food and in the other a spoon to distribute the same (among her devotees), or in the latter, holds the noose and the hook in two hands and shows the protecting and the boon-giving postures in the others ; the goddesses Gayatrī, Savitrī and