Here Siva is seated in the sukhasana or the comfortable
posture on a raised pedestal, as in the case of Somaskanda figures, his left leg hanging down and resting on a foot- stool. The goddess ParvatI too is seated to the left of Siva on the same pedestal, her right leg being bent at the knee and placed on the pedestal while the left is hanging down to rest on another foot-stool. Siva has four arms. In his two back hands he holds the axe and the deer and with the two front arms he is seen decorating with a flower garland the locks of his servant, the devoted Chandesa. The latter sits on the ground at the foot of Siva, with bending knees and folded arms, and receives the divine favour with grati- tude. The images are well ornamented. Above the group are seen flying gods and demi-gods who have evidently gathered round to see the kindness of Siva shown towards his devotee. According to the Mayamata Chandesa has behind his folded arms the weapon parasu (axe). On the east gopura of the Chidambaram temple is a figure of Chan- desanugrahamurti in which Chandesa is represented with the axe between his folded arms.
The size of the image of Chandesa must, it is stated, be "small so as to reach the arms of Siva and is to be bedecked with the ornaments of children. The Kasyapa-Silpa states that between the god and the goddess may be placed the figure of Skanda, at the sculptor's option. " Next to Dakshina- murti," it says, " the figure of Chandesanugraha is the most famous." A group of images under the name Chandes- varaprasadadeva was set up in the Tanjore temple by king Rajarajal, and consisted of (l) the god Chandesvaraprasada- deva with four arms, (2) the demon Musalagan with two arms, (3) the goddess Umaparamesvarl, (4) Mahadeva (the lingo. worshipped evidently by the boy Chandesa), (5) the devotee with two arms, (6) his father also with two arms represented as having fallen down and lying on the ground and (7) Chandesa receiving with his two arms the boon of a flower- garland from Siva. 1 This description agrees with the story related in the Periyapuranam, a compilation of the thirteenth century A.D. The Kdranagama, whose date is not known, was also apparently familiar with the story.
XXII
Some particularly fierce forms of Siva may now be J$ ARA BHA- ] described. First in fierceness comes the form of the fabulous/touR TI -
1 South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. II, Introduction, p. 39. IO-A