'Siva Nandi

[N. Ganesan]

I do not find Ananda tANDava naTarAja, Dakshinamurthy,
Somaskanda, Lingodbhava outside of Tamil Nadu.
Info on the above 4 image typology in India
is appreciated.

Other Shiva iconographic forms have to be looked into.
Interested in "Siva forms specific to Tamil South
or any other particular state.

Nandi, the sacred bull is ubiquitous in the South.
Hoysala Nandis are particularly beautiful. M. A. Dhaky
has a nice paper in Artibus Asiae on TN and Karnataka
Nandis. Nandis are not common in front of the Shivalingams
in the North.

C. Sivaramamurti, the doyen of art historians, has writen
that a human male with a bull's head found in Barabudur
and other sites shows South Indian influence. This form
is AdhikAra Nandi in Tamil Nadu. There are many Chola
bronzes taken out in temple processions with a human male's body
anf a bull's head.

Given that cows are never represented in Indus seals while
side view of bulls, so called unicorn seals are many: this may be
very important in deciphering IVC religious code.
Also, there are IVC seals with a composite image of
a human male having a bull's head (like 1) Borobudur
and 2) AdhikAra Nandi bronzes of Tamil nadu.)

Regards,
N. Ganesan



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