Siva also cut off the head which uttered the lie. 1 The flower

ketaki too, which abetted the crime, was excluded from the flowers dear to Siva. On an apology being offered, the latter was however accepted, as a special case, during the worship on the night of the Sivaratri festival which falls on the fourteenth day of the dark half of Magha (January-February) in each year and is held sacred in honour of the linga- manifestation of Siva. Perhaps, images called Ekapadamurti or Ekapada- EKAPADA Trimurti, in which the gods Brahma and Vishnu, with folded M RTI - hands and characteristic symbols, are represented as proceed- ing out of the body of Siva at his waist as in the Tiruvottiyur image (fig. 59) or from behind his knee as in the image from Tiruvanaikkaval (fig. 60) are either developments of Lingod- bhava wherein the superiority of Siva over the two other members of the Hindu Triad was established, or an invention of the Indian sculptor in which is symbolized the underlying unity of the three gods. 2 The Kdranagama mentions Ekapada murti as one of the sportive forms of Siva and describes him as having one foot, three eyes and four arms in which are seen the tanka and deer and the varada and the abhaya postures. On the right and left sides of Siva, almost touching his shoulders, are Brahma and Vishnu holding their symbolical weapons in two hands and worshipping Siva with the other two.

The single foot which is the characteristic feature of these figures, is, in the case of the Tiruvanaikkaval image, placed on the back of the bull. In it are also seen the vehicle of Brahma, viz., the swan, at the right bottom and, at the corresponding left bottom, the standing Garuda vehicle of Vishnu and a sage perhaps Narada. Apparently Eka- padamurti has to be connected with Ajaikapad, a name given in the Rig-Veda to one of the Ekadasa-Rudras. 8

VIII

The story of LingOdbhava introduces us to another form BHIKSHA of Siva, known as Bhikshatana, very often seen in South- TANA - Indian temples. When Siva cut off one of the heads of

1 The Karanagama mentions a sportive form of Siva cutting off one of the heads of Brahma. The image is stated to have four arms holding the thunder- bolt and the axe in the right hand and the trident and Brahma's skull in the left. - Accordingly, we sometimes find Vishnu occupying the central place. On p. 73 above, footnote I, it was noted that the goddess Gayatri was absorbed into the centre of the linga while Brahma and Vishnu entered the sides of it. 3 See Nagendra Natha Vasu's May&rabhaiijii, Introduction, p, xxxj. 7