SAKTI-GODDESSES
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Kalī represented sometimes also with twelve or sixteen arms is worshipped by the Vaisyas and Sūdras under the names Charcharā and Bhairavī respectively.
DurgāDurgā is a very popular deity. The name is indifferently applied to all goddesses with a terrible appearance and in a fighting attitude. The general description of Durgā given in the Kāsyapa-Silpa represents her as having four arms, two eyes, high hips, high breasts, and all ornaments. She holds the conch and the discus in her upper hands, [1] while her right lower hand presents the abhaya posture and the left lower rests on the waist. She stands on a lotus-pedestal and has a Mula-Durga.breast-band of serpents and a red petticoat. According to the Silparatna, Mūla-Durgā holds in her lower hands the bow and the arrow. From Mahābalipuram comes the figure of a Durgā (fig. 124) who stands on the buffalo's head. She has eight arms, in the uppermost of which are found the discus and the conch. The other weapons held are the sword and the bell on the right side and the bow and shield on the left. The lowest of the right hands holds evidently a sriphala or the bēl-fruit and the corresponding left has a parrot perching on it and rests freely on the waist of the goddess. The necklace, breast-band and the garment hanging in folds down to her feet deserve to be noticed. The absence of finger rings on the eight hands of the goddess is pecu- liar. The illustration shows also other figures surrounding the goddess, viz., two male devotees with peculiar head dress kneeling at her feet, two female attendants on either side holding the sword and the bow, two demi-gods one of whom is carrying a chauri, and a lion and a deer. In another mandapa at Mahābalipuram is a sculpture evidently of the same goddess with the lion and the deer, pairs of demi gods on the sides and devotees at the feet, one of whom is in the act of either cutting off his hair or his neck. The goddess has only four arms and stands on an ordinary pedestal but not on the buffalo's head (fig. 125). At Sri-mushnam in the South Arcot district is an image of Durgā with eight arms showing almost the same symbols as those of the figure at Mahābalipuram described above, the only exception being that instead of the bell in one of the right
- ↑ Rai Bahadur Venkayya says in South-Ind. Inscrs., Vol. II. Introd., p. 41, note I: "Durgā is represented with a sheep's head standing on the giant Simhamukhāsura whom she killed. Her head is fiery and adorned with different jewels. On her forehead she wears a crescent made with sacred ashes of burnt cow-dung. In five of her six hands she holds, respectively, a ring, a sword, a trident, a goad, and a skull."
