«« go back

Two forms of Bhairava accompanied by Ganesha and Kârttikeya

The two larger images on these reliefs portray two forms of Bhairava, an angry manifestation of the Hindu god Shiva, from which also the Buddhist deity Mahâkâla derives, whose name “Great Black One” or “Great Time” is simply an epithet of Bhairava. Both deities are the object of a special worship in the Nepal Valley, where their iconography, as well as their cult, is often so closely fused together as to make it difficult in some cases to tell them apart. In fact, Bhairava and Mahâkâla share their attributes, their macabre outfit, the martial pose and sometimes their symbolic meanings too.

Beside the two more important central deities—whose Shaivite origin is indicated by the presence of the trident, Shiva’s emblem, held by the centre left figure—are Shiva and Pârvatî’s most important sons: Ganesha and Kârttikeya in his martial aspect.

The eldest, Kârttikeya, riding the peacock, one of his two best known mounts, seems to have enjoyed a certain importance in the Nepal Valley mainly during Licchavi times and during the early Malla period, when the younger brother, Ganesha, seems to have held a minor role.¹ His importance was subsequently clouded by Ganesha’s rising popularity, the object of a privileged cult in the Nepal Valley as in the whole of the Indian sub-continent. In fact, the image of the elephant god, sometimes aniconic or miraculously self-generated in a stone or in the roots of a tree, can be seen at every corner, crossroads, square and habitation in the Valley. The devotion to him is reflected in every public or private rite, where Ganesha’s name is invoked as the first among the gods of the Hindu pantheon.²

[1] Mary Shepherd Slusser, Nepal Mandala. A Cultural Study of the Kathmandu Valley, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1982, p. 259.

ALC (Free Circulation)