The Goddess Hari¸a¼karï /Jha¼ke¸varï,the Composite Form of the Consorts of Vi¹½u and �iva

from Nepal*

Gudrun Bühnemann

The composite form of Vi¹½u and �iva, variouslyknown as Harihara, Hari¸a¼kara or �a¼karanårå-ya½a, is well attested in Indian and Nepalese icono-graphy. However, a composite form of the consortsof these two deities is unknown in India and ap-pears to be a later Nepalese creation. Although thisiconographic form has been noted and referred tobriefly by several scholars and a few representa-tions have been published, a more comprehensivetreatment is lacking. This paper examines newevidence for this goddess and includes two hithertounpublished representations in line drawings.

The oldest known representations of the compo-site form of the consorts of Vi¹½u and �iva in Ne-palese art are two seventeenth-century stone sculp-tures. The first (Fig. 1) is installed in Tusåhiti, asunken fountain (hiti) located in Sundarïcok, one ofthree courtyards of Patan's Darbår Square. Thefountain was built in 1647 under King Siddhinara-siºhamalla of Patan. The sculpture in Tusåhiti ismutilated, five of the goddess's left arms beingbroken off. The second sculpture (Fig. 2) is insidethe Båle¸vara/Gopåle¸vara Temple, in the centre ofRånï Pokharï complex, Kathmandu.1 Rånï Pokharïwas constructed under King Pratåpamalla of Kath-mandu in 1670. The sculpture is found on the nor-thern wall of the temple, which has a ¸ivali¼ga inits sanctum.

Both sculptures represent a similar iconographictype with twelve arms and six heads. The distribu-tion of the twelve attributes in the goddess's handsis summarized in the diagram (Type I). The god-dess's right hands hold typically Vai¹½ava attri-butes, while mostly �aiva emblems have been as-signed to her left hands. She stands in militant

stance with her right foot on Garu·a and her leftfoot on �iva's bull mount. We have here a compo-site icon in which the right side represents Vi¹½u'sconsort and the left side �iva's consort.

This iconographic type is also represented in ahitherto unpublished circa nineteenth-century linedrawing (Fig. 3) in manuscript 3/40 of the NationalArchives, Kathmandu (= Nepal-German ManuscriptPreservation Project A 1174/24). All three repre-sentations agree in the way the goddess's attributesare assigned to her twelve hands and in the arrange-ment of her six heads in two tiers.

TYPE 1

Right hands Left hands

wheelconchmacelotusbell

wish-granting gesture

trident*water lily*skull-topped staff*human head*rattle drum*gesture of protection

* The attributes marked with asterisks are only seen onthe Rånï Pokharï sculpture. The corresponding arms ofthe Tusåhiti sculpture are broken off.

NAGAR 1989: 64-65 (plates 11-12) devotes somespace to a description of the two stone sculptures ofthe goddess, whom he calls a �Tantric form of theconsorts of Hari-�ankar�, ��aktis of Hari-Hara� and�composite form of Lakshmï-Pårvatï�. BHATTA-CHARYYA 1980: 35-36 refers to the goddess asPårvatï-Lak¹mï. In their descriptions of the imagesin Tusåhiti, scholars have named the goddess the�female counterpart of Hari-Hara in the Tåntricaspect� (DEVA 1984: 53), �Tantric Female Deity�(BANGDEL 1995: 283/74) or �Gauri Laxmi� (Ma¼ga-lånanda in SUKRA SAGAR SHRESTHA 1996: 10/75).DEVA 1984: vi, 39, 69 labels the stone sculpturefrom Rånï Pokharï as Hari¸a¼karï. This latter name

* I would like to thank the Gerda-Henkel-Stiftung for support-ing my research for this paper.

1 The Tantric images in this temple, which are accessible to thepublic only on one specific day per year, are described inDEVA 1984: 69-70.

2 G. Bühnemann

Fig. 1 A seventeenth-century stone sculpture of the composite form of the consorts of Vi¹½u and �iva from Tusåhiti, Patan. Photograph: Rajan Shrestha

is indeed attested for a somewhat similar compositegoddess in an inscription2 on a painting.

This painting (Fig. 4)3 is part of manuscript10054, a concertina-type manuscript (thyåsaphu)from Nepal preserved in the Bhårat Kalå Bhavan,Vårå½asï, which dates from the month of Mågha of(nepåla) saºvat 885, that is, 1765 CE.4 In contrastto the earlier type, the goddess's right hands holdmostly �aiva attributes, while her left hands hold

Vai¹½ava emblems. The distribution of the attri-butes, two of which are altogether different, is asfollows:

TYPE 2

Right hands Left hands

tridentskull-cup

rattle drumchopper

human headwish-granting gesture

wheelconchmacelotuswater lilygesture of protection

Here the skull-cup is found in place of the skull-topped staff, and the chopper instead of the bell.

2 The inscription is seen between the two feet of the paintedimage. PAL 1970: 115 erroneously reads Harï¸a¼karï.

3 The painting is discussed in PAL 1970: 115 (with fig. 83) andBHATTACHARYYA 1980: 35-36 (with fig. 30).

4 PAL 1970: 113 and BHATTACHARYYA 1980: 35 erroneouslydate the manuscript to 1795 CE.

The Goddess Hari¸a¼karï/Jha¼ke¸varï 3

Fig 2 A seventeenth-century stone sculpture of the composite goddess fromthe Båle¸vara/Gopåle¸vara Temple, Rånï Pokharï, Kathmandu; reproduced from DEVA 1984: plate 60

The goddess has her right foot on a bull and her leftfoot on Garu·a. This time her right side represents�iva's consort and her left side the consort of Vi¹½u.Five of the goddess's heads are allocated to thelower tier, which is topped by the sixth head.

The goddess's name Hari¸a¼karï, the one in-scribed on the painting, is derived from the mascu-line compound Hari¸a¼kara (denoting the two maledeities fused into one body) by substituting thefeminine suffix -ï. The fusion of Vi¹½u and �iva iswell attested in Indian and Nepalese iconography,as is the name Hari¸a¼kara for this composite form.The name is found inscribed, for example, next toan eight-armed late-nineteenth-century or early-twentieth-century line drawing in the �Book of Ico-nographic Drawings�, M.82.164.2 5/34 (gift fromDr. R. Coles), preserved in the Los Angeles CountyMuseum of Art, and in a similar line drawing insketchbook 82.242, preserved in the Newark Mu-seum. A sculpture of an eight-armed Hari¸a¼kara isinstalled in the Hari¸a¼kara Temple in Patan (GAIL

1984-1988, volume 1: 45 [with plate XXXIX, 2]).A sketch of a sculpture of a four-armed Hari¸a¼kara

from the Nåråya½a Temple, Bhaktapur, is repro-duced in DAYAL 1980, plate 28 (also p. 21). Itshows Vi¹½u occupying the right half and �iva theleft half of the body. The sculptures in the Hari-¸a¼kara Temple and the Nåråya½a Temple, Bhakta-pur, however, preserve the more common repre-sentation, where the icon's right half is occupied by�iva and the left half by Vi¹½u.

The same iconographic type of the goddess isalso portrayed in three line drawings in manuscript771 preserved in the Patan Museum, the largest ofwhich is reproduced here (Fig. 5). However, thiseighteenth-/nineteenth-century manuscript fragmentlabels the goddess as Jha¼ke¸varï.

References to Jha¼ke¸varï appear in ancient in-scriptions, which inform us that she was the tutelarydeity of the rulers of Pharpi¼, Nepal.5 Her name isfirst mentioned in the colophon of a manuscript ofthe Agastya-Saºhitå preserved in the National Ar-chives, Kathmandu, its date corresponding to 1355

5 For references to Jha¼ke¸varï in historical records of thefourteenth to fifteenth centuries CE, see REGMI 1965-1966,part 1: 555, 635; part 2: 585; part 3: (43), no. 15.

4 G. Bühnemann

Fig. 3 A ca. nineteenth-century line drawing of the com-posite goddess from manuscript 3/40 of the NationalArchives, Kathmandu (= Nepal-German Manuscript Pre-servation Project A 1174/24)

55 CE (PETECH 1984: 194-195).6 The goddess isalso called Mahåmåyå. PAL 1974-1978, part 1, plate36 (and description, pp. 35 and 134) reproduced astone sculpture of a goddess from Pharpi¼ which helabelled Jha¼ke¸varï and dated to 1407 CE. Al-though PAL does not give a reason for assigning thisdate, the year 1407 appears to have been taken froman inscription outside a temple at Kochhutol inPharpi¼ printed in REGMI 1965-1966, part 3: 42-43,which refers to Jha¼ke¸varï. It should be noted thatthere is not sufficient evidence for linking the god-dess referred to in the inscription as Jha¼ke¸varïwith the stone sculpture. What is more, the sculp-ture represents a type of Mahi¹åsuramardinï (seealso BANGDEL 1995: 450/2 for this identification)and not the composite Jha¼ke¸varï whose icono-graphy is the topic of this paper. Jha¼ke¸varï is alsothe name of one of the nine Durgås (see Padmagiri'sVaº¸åvalï = HASRAT 1970: 25).7 Although the

name Jha¼ke¸varï appears in the aforementionedhistorical records, it has not been transmitted alongwith an iconographic description of the goddess. Itwould therefore not be appropriate to assume thatthe goddess was portrayed the same way as in thePatan manuscript. A brief survey of unpublishedp÷jåvidhi manuscripts microfilmed by the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project brought tolight varying descriptions of Jha¼ke¸varï as a non-composite goddess, including a form with fiveheads and ten arms8 and an eighteen-armed mani-festation.9 The iconography of the goddess needs tobe examined in more detail by studying unpub-lished manuscript material.

The name Jha¼ke¸varï has not been explainedconvincingly. Perhaps it is formed from the god-dess's seed (bïja) syllable jhaº/jha¼, with jha¼kåra(where -ka replaces -kåra) as the first part of thecompound, combined with the word ï¸varï (�mis-tress�), thus meaning �mistress of the syllable jhaº�.Jha¼kåra is also attested as the name of a Bhairava,one of two narrators of the Krodhabhairavas÷tra,and features in the title of the text Nånåjha¼kåra-målinïsaºhitå (DYCZKOWSKI 1988: 108). Jha¼kåra-bhï¹a½a is referred to in the Ni¹pannayogåvalï'sdescription of the Yogåmbarama½·ala (p. 34,10), aspart of a group along with Ca½·e¸vara, Chandodevaand Jvare¸vara. Assuming the same abbreviation of-kåra to -ka, one could also interpret the name Jha-¼ke¸varï to mean �mistress of Jha¼kåra(bhairava)�.

In conclusion, it can be said that we can identifytwo similar types of the six-headed, twelve-armedcomposite goddess. Type 1 is represented in two se-venteenth-century stone sculptures and a circa nine-teenth-century line drawing. It shows Vi¹½u's consorttaking the right side and �iva's consort the left sideof the composite body. The two animal mounts arepositioned accordingly. Type 2 is represented in aneighteenth-century painting and three eighteenth-/nineteenth-century line drawings. Here �iva's consortoccupies the right side and Vi¹½u's consort the leftside of the composite body. Accordingly, �iva's bulland Vi¹½u's Garu·a mount are assigned to the rightand left sides respectively. Traditions differ here asthey do in representations of Hari¸a¼kara/ Harihara

6 See also the discussion in PANT 1977.

7 The nine Durgås are listed (and their names written) as:Vajre¸varï, Ko¶e¸varï, Jha¼ge¸varï (for Jha¼ke¸varï), Bhuva-ne¸varï, Ma¼gale¸varï, Guhje¸varï (for Guhye¸varï), Vatbale-¸varï (for Vatsale¸varï), Råje¸varï and Jayavåge¸varï (forJayavågï¸varï). MICHAELS 1994: 25 lists Jayama¼galå, Råja-

råje¸varï, Vajre¸varï, Vanakålï, Jayavågï¸varï, Bhuvane¸varï,Jha¼ke¸varï, Guhye¸varï and Ko¶e¸varï, all of whom have apï¶ha in Deupatan, a suburb of Kathmandu.

8 See Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project, reel no.E 1108/8: Jha¼ke¸varïp÷jåvidhi (Sanskrit and Nevårï), datedN.S. 647 = 1526/27 CE; E 1297/8: �rï-Jha¼ke¸varïp÷jåvidhi;A 1230/3: Jha¼ke¸varïp÷jåvidhi.

9 See Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project, reel no.A 1230/5: Jha¼ke¸varïp÷jåvidhi.

The Goddess Hari¸a¼karï/Jha¼ke¸varï 5

Fig. 4 An eighteenth-century painting labelled Hari-¸a¼karï from manuscript 10054 in the collection of theBhårat Kalå Bhavan; reproduced from a photograph bythe American Institute of Indian Studies, Gurgaon (nega-tive no. 3-32)

Fig. 5 An eighteenth-/nineteenth-century line drawinglabelled Jha¼ke¸varï from manuscript 771 preserved inthe Patan Museum; reproduced from a photocopysupplied by T. Schrom

(see above), where �iva usually occupies the righthalf of the composite icon but occasionally also theleft.10 Two of the twelve attributes differ and thereis a slight deviation in the way the remaining attri-butes are assigned to the goddess's hands. Thearrangement of the six heads also differs. While noname has been transmitted for type 1, type 2 islabelled Hari¸a¼karï in an eighteenth-century paint-ing, and Jha¼ke¸varï in a later line drawing. Thename Hari¸a¼karï is self-explanatory and appropri-ate, whereas the name Jha¼ke¸varï, of uncertain ety-mology, was given to more than one iconographicform.

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NAGAR, S.L. 1989: Composite Deities in Indian Art andLiterature. Delhi: Criterion Publications.

Ni¹pannayogåvalï. Ni¹pannayogåvalï of Mahåpa½·itaAbhayåkaragupta. Edited by B. Bhattacharyya.Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1949.

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�� 1974-1978. The Arts of Nepal. 2 parts. Leiden:E.J. Brill.

PANT, Mahe¸råj 1977: Pharpi¼ko jha¼ke¸varïm÷rtikopråcïnatåko vi¹ayamå. P÷r½imå 37: 10-11 (in Nepålï).

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10 For a discussion of Harihara/�a¼karanåråya½a images inNepal, see PAL 1970: 128-135 and DEVA 1984: 38-40.