a campaign in the north. It is well known that as a sacred
place of pilgrimage Chidambaram is intimately connected with the Saiva saint Manikyavachaka (Manikkavasagar), the Pariah saint Nandanar both of whom attained their salvation there and with the Saiva philosopher and scholar Appaya- Dlkshita who was much devoted to that temple. The place is mentioned in the Saiva hymns of the Devdram, in which it is called Tillai. The 3,000 Brahmana families of Tillai (which may have once lived there but have at present dwindled down to a few hundreds) claim Siva to be one of them and worship Nataraja as their family deity.
VI
. The Agamas mention, as already stated, 1 twenty-five spor- tive forms (lila-murtis) of Siva, most of which are usually met with in South-Indian temples. One of the more important of these is Dakshinamurti. In Chola temples this image generally occupies a niche in the south wall of the central shrine. Dakshinamurti or Dharma-Vyakhyanamurti is the form of Siva DAKSHINA engaged in yoga or philosophic contemplation. Once upon a time Daksha, the father-in-law of Siva, insulted him and his consort Uma, by not inviting them to a sacrifice which he was performing. Uma nevertheless went uninvited to her father's house, but being grossly neglected jumped into the sacrificial fire-pit and destroyed herself. Siva was furious ; he created out of a lock of his hair the terrible Vlrabhadra (see below, p. 155) who destroyed Daksha. Siva then retired to a forest with the resolve not to marry again and sat underneath a banyan tree deeply engaged in meditation. The gods were much concerned ; for it meant that the world would loose the benefit of Siva's direct intervention in its affairs. They accordingly induced Kama, 2 the god of love, to stir up once again in the mind of Siva the dormant embers of love. The fool-hardy Kama incautiously approached the god engaged in meditation and shot his flowery arrows at him and hit him. Siva then opened his eye of fire and looked straight at Kama, when lo! he was at once reduced to a heap of ashes.' s Still Kama had succeeded. For, soon afterwards Siva gave up his
1 Above, p. 76, footnote i.
2 Described above, p. 62.
3 This incident has given rise to the recognition of another sportive form of Siva called Kamari or Kamadahanamurti. The scene is depicted on one of the pillars of an unfinished mandapa near the tank in the Ekamresvara temple at Conjeeveratn. Accordiag to the Karattagama^ Kamadahanamurti has four arms in which are seen the abhaya, varada, a deer and the tanka. He is seated on a lotus pedestal and is fierce in appearance.