Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/94

74 over the shaft. In a linga considered as a symbol of Brahman, the quadrangular bottom of the shaft is believed to represent Brahmā, the octagonal middle Vishnu and the circular upper portion Siva. Sometimes a single linga is known by the name Sahasra ("the thousand")-linga (fig. 46). It is divided into twenty-five facets, each of these latter having miniature representations of forty lingas and making up thus the number one thousand.

Round the sanctum of a Siva temple, on its outer wall, are usually enshrined in specially formed niches the images of Ganapati and Dakshināmūrti on the south, Lingōdbhava (or sometimes, Vishnu) on the west, and Brahmā and Durga on the north. In the enclosing verandah round the central shrine may be installed the images of the sixty-three Saiva Saints, lingas which devout adherents might choose to establish for the merit of themselves or of their ancestors, the nine Planets (Navagrahas), which, since the time astrology was established in India, have been receiving divine homage, and a host of other gods and goddesses such as Kumāra (Skanda), Vīrabhadra, Bhairava, etc. Natarāja or Sabhāpati "the lord of the divine congregation" is placed in a separate shrine, generally the Sabhā-mandapa or "the assembly hall." The goddess Pārvatī, the consort of Siva, who receives all kinds of fanciful names and surnames according to local traditions, is also enshrined separately. Sometimes it is found that every important subordinate deity has a separate shrine for itself, smaller, of course, in size than the sanctum.

It may be noted that, while worship is offered in the central shrine of a Siva temple only to the formless stone linga, for processional purposes images made of metal are used; and these are of various forms and go by various names, such as Sōmāskanda, Vrishārūdha, Gangādhara, Kalyānasundara, Ardhanāri, Bhikshātana, Natarāja, etc. Instances are not uncommon where images of Siva in one of his processional forms receives more attention from the worshippers than the linga itself. In Chidambaram, for example, the image of Natarāja receives more attention and