Bhairava: Iconography of Shiva

Part of ’Architectural and Religious Heritage of South India’ project

Objectives

The Hindu God Shiva is an ambivalent divinity, benevolent at one time and then fearsome at another, adopting terrifying forms in his destructive function. One of such wild forms has been given an exceptional importance in Indian sculpture. It is called Bhairava "the horrifying one" which is doubtlessly the most violent and "impure" manifestation of Siva as it is closely linked to the myth of the decapitation of Brahma, the Creator in the divine Hindu triad (trimurti).

This manifestation of Siva has induced a huge variety of iconographical types. The Indian sculptures of Bhairava show him turn by turn as an untouchable mendicant moving from place to place for his penance or as a glorious god with an aura, surrounded by followers. He can take the appearance of a monster deformed and frightening, dancing in frenzy on the cremation grounds, brandishing many arms of destruction, or looking young and attractive, or skeletal, incarnation of Time and Death. Some images emphasize the transcendence of this sinful god, showing him as an image of Deliverance to whom everyone aspires. Many others relegate him to a fearsome guardian, as a Ksetrapala "guardian of territory" in the temples or in village borders. He is sometimes, in this role of protecting guardian, repeated in eight Bhairava.

One can ask why this particular form of Siva has generated so many varied representations. The complex figure of Bhairava, associated to concepts of sin and death, with an extraordinary iconographic and conceptual wealth, has given rise to numerous interrogations and calls for a deep study of faces that Indian artists have given him.

This database offers a vast panorama of images of Bhairava in South India and establishes to what extent certain iconographic particularities are linked to geographical areas, dynasties, and enables the user to see the numerical proportion of images by state, by district etc.

Materials and Methods

This database (bilingual French/English), achieved in collaboration with the Geomatics team and the Photoarchives of the French Institute of Pondicherry assembles a thousand pictures of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The photographs have been chosen from the collection of the Photoarchives of the IFP (black and white pictures) added with some plates by Karine Ladrech taken during field-trips (color pictures). The photographic documentation is accompanied by notes (location of the pictures, iconographic description and diverse information), a search engine enabling to cruise the entire data and to select images corresponding to various criteria of precise search.

Partners

Geomatics team and the Photoarchives of the French Institute of Pondicherry

Funding

• French Institute of Pondicherry
• Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient
• LACMI (University of Paris-III / CNRS)

Team

• Karine Ladrech - Project Direction
• K. Ramesh Kumar - Photography and Image Processing
• Nicolas Dejenne - Project Assistance
• S. Jyotinarayan - Software Engineer
• G. Muthusankar - GIS Engineer
• N. Murugesan - Archivist
• A.Dharanidharan - Data Administration

Main Outputs

Publications and/or CD ROMS

CD ROM developed by Kolam Information Services Private Limited.

• Bhairava Sahasrapratimāvaliḥ. Iconographie de la forme terrible de Śiva en Inde du Sud / Iconography of the terrible form of Śiva in South India

Edition par K. Ladrech, avec la collaboration de N. Dejenne, K. Ramesh Kumar, IFP/EFEO, 2005, [CD-ROM] (CI n° 95)
Language: French, English. 300 Rs (11 €)

This bilingual French/English database assembles one thousand images of Bhairava (principally sculptures) in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, thereby presenting a vast panorama of representations of the deity in South India. The photographic documentation, derived mainly from the photographic collection of the French Institute of Pondicherry, is accompanied by descriptive fiches (localization of images, iconographic description and other miscellaneous information). A search-engine enables the user to bring together all the various data and to select images based on specific search criteria. The CD-ROM also contains a presentation of the deity and maps indicating the location of the images.

Keywords: database, iconography, sculpture, South India, Śiva-Bhairava