Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/279

 the presiding sage of the Indian Medical Science, is supposed to be a form of Vishnu and is found generally figured in company of the Asvins, 1 who are the physicians of the gods. He holds a pot of nectar in his hands.

Among the human beings who have attained sainthood may be included the great religious reformers such as Sankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya and others. SANI-.ARA- The first is represented as a sannyasin (mendicant) with a CHARYA - bald head and a body besmeared with ashes. He holds a book in his left hand and shows the chinmudrd, the teaching pose of fingers, in the other. The staff and the water-pot (kundika) which are the symbols of the sannydsins, are found placed by his side. Seated on the tiger's skin in the padmasana posture he is surrounded by attendant pupils. Sankaracharya may also be found decorated with a necklace of rudraksha-beads which are sacred to Siva. The illus- tration from Tiruvottiyur (fig. 159) shows GaulTsvara (Gauda- pada ?), the teacher's teacher of Sankaracharya, with four arms, occupying the highest seat. Below him to the right is Sankaracharya and below him on the pedestal are depicted the latter's four pupils. Ramanujacharya has the sanjali- RAMANUJA- mudra, i.e., hands folded together over the breast in a CHARYA and worshipping posture, the triple staff (tridanda) and a head- D^SIKA! dress. He wears the Vaishnava caste marks urdhvapundra (or ndmani) made of white clay and red pigment (fig. 160 (d) Vedanta-Desika (fig. 160 (b)) is also a Sri- Vaishnava teacher of great fame. Madhvacharya, like Sankara, is a bald-headed MADHVA- sannydsin with the chinmudrd, the book, the staff and the CHARYA kundika. He wears the caste mark urdhvapundra and the Vaishnava symbols of conch, discus, etc., made on his body either of sandal-paste or of the yellow clay called gopichandana.

Saiva and Vaishnava saints (called Ndyandrs and Alvdrs), saivaand the former of whom are sixty-three in number and the latter Vaishnava twelve are also occasionally installed in temples, their images Saints - being made either of metal or of stone. The most famous of the former are Appar, Sundarar and Tirujnanasambandar, 2

1 These are the two gods Nasatya and Basra mentioned in the Vedas. They are of the form of a horse except in their faces and are found together, seated on the same lion-pedestal. In two of their arms they exhibit the abhaya and the book. On their right are represented the medical herbs Mritasamj'wani and l?isalydkarani and on their left, the sages Dhanvantari and Atreya (?).

2 In the Madras Archaeological Survey Report for 1911-12, Plate II, rigs. 1-4, are given illustrations of four bronze images which represent Appar, Manik- kavasagar, Jnanasambandar and Sundarar (?). Visvakarma, Part IV, Plates 62 and 63, illustrate figures of Manikkavasagar and Sundaramurti (Sundarar) from Ceylon. Havell gives a picture of Appar (Ideals oj Indian Art, Plate XIV), In the