Standing images of Siva generally belong to the class ASHTAMURTI > known as Ashtamurtis or Ekadasa-Rudras. The former have ^^ Ki " generally four hands and three eyes and wear the jatdmakuta. RUDRAS. The fore-arms exhibit the protecting and the boon-giving postures ; while the hind arms hold the tanka and the antelope. The Ekadasa-Rudras are almost similar to Rudramurti in form, with the black scar on the neck, the crescent on the head and the scarf of tiger-skin. In place of the dhakka in the right upper hand is seen the axe (parasu). A form of Siva combining five bodies in one is known as Panchadehamurti. Though not found in any of the temples PANCHADEHA examined so far, it is often mentioned in the Tanjore inscrip- m " tions as having been installed in the Rajarajesvara (i.e., the modern BrihadlSvara) temple by the Chola king Rajaraja or his subordinates, in the first quarter of the eleventh century A.D. The Panchadehamurti consisted of five images, four of which stood in the four directions and the fifth was placed in the middle, its head being higher in level than the others. 2 One of these was called Aghora. The linga with five faces called Panchamukha-/*//,YZ is only the five-bodied Panchadeha- murti translated in terms of the symbolical phallus. 3 It has the heads of four Siva-images figured on its four sides. The illustration from Tiruvanaikkaval (fig. 47) does not show any face at the top. The Skanda-Purana mentions a seated MAHA- form of Siva called Mahakailasa or Maha-Sadasiva which is or jiAHA- represented with twenty-five faces and fifty hands, wears SADASIVA. a garland of skulls and is clothed in tiger's skin.
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Images answering to the two names Nataraja and Sabha- NATARAJA or pati, in the Hindu Pantheon, are identical in design. Nataraja (the prince of dancers) is the well-known dancing" form of god Siva. It has four arms and a body besmeared with ashes. The back arm on the right side holds the kettle- drum (udukkai, as it is called in Tamil) while the other presents the raised palm of protection (abhaya). Of the pair on the left, the upper holds a fire-pot and the lower is bent round
1 According to Hemadri these may be substituted by the club and the trident.'
2 Jaina images called Chaturmukha or Chaumnkhl are often made of a single stone. The four identical images on the four sides are surmounted by a series of umbrellas common to all, which appear like the spire of a temple (see Epigraphia Indica, Vol. X, p. 115). The Buddhists also seem to have possessed such figures ; see N'agendra Natha Vasu's Mayurabhatija % p. 41.
3 A linga placed at the entrance into an old Siva temple at Raichur (Hydera- bad State) shows a combination of five lingas, four on the sides and one at the top.