Ardhanarisvara

File:Shiva Shakti.jpg

Shiva and Shakti as One

In Hinduism, Ardhanari (sa. अर्धनारी Ardhanārī) or Ardhanarishvara (sa. अर्धनारीश्वर Ardhanārīśvara), is an androgynous deity composed of Shiva and his consort Shakti, representing the synthesis of masculine and feminine energies. The Ardhanari form also illustrates how the female principle of God, Shakti is inseparable from the male principle of God, Shiva. Ardhanari in iconography is depicted as half-male and half-female, split down the middle. The best sculptural depictions of Shiva as Ardhanari are to be seen in the sensuous Chola dynasty bronzes and the sculptures at Ellora and Elephanta.

Origins

The term 'Ardhanarishvara' is a combination of three words- 'ardha', 'nari' and 'ishvara', meaning respectively, 'half', 'woman' and 'Lord' or 'God', that is, Ardhanarishvara is the Lord whose half is woman, or who is half woman. Other scholars have suggested that the name translates as "half-man, half-woman". However, this has largely been discounted, since it implies dvaita, or a duality of existence. This would stand in direct contradiction the Advaitic philosophy which informs Shaivism; this states that Shiva and Shiva alone permeates all of existence, as it is by His will exclusively that the cosmos came into being.

Ardhanarishvara is one of the most prevalent forms of the Divine in Indian art since around the beginning of the Christian era or a little before. The earliest Ardhanarishvara images are reported from the period of Kushanas (circa 35–60 C.E.).

Iconography

Barring a few exceptions, the right half of the Ardhanarishvara images comprises male anatomy and the left that of the female. A few images, obviously influenced by the Shakta sect, have a reverse placement of the male and female parts also.

As regards the height perspective, dimensions of face and other parts, the male anatomy, and more so in sculptures where bolder forms are chisel's need, is the determinant, but in paintings, which look for the softer aspects, the female anatomy is found dominating the entire figure.

Despite a similar anatomy of the two parts, the female part imparts the feeling of elegance and tenderness. An elegantly modeled prominent breast is the essentiality of the female anatomy. The Ardhanarishvara image may be endowed with two, three, four, six or eight arms. Arms more than eight are the attribute of Raudra Shiva who has been conceived with as many as a thousand arms. The two-armed image is the Ardhanarishvara in lalita posture, the beautiful one in absolute ease. The female hand carries either a mirror or nilotpala, a blue lotus. The male hand either rests on the bull or is let loose below the thigh. It may also be in abhaya mudra, the gesture imparting fearlessness. When three-armed, one is on the female side and the two on male.

Now one of the two male arms is in abhaya or varada and other one carries a trident or rod. In four-armed figures on male side it is almost the same, but the second female hand carries variously the mirror, nilotpala or pot. The male in six and eight-armed figures carries, besides the abhaya and varada, various weapons and the drum and the female, besides the mirror, nilotpala and pot, also the parrot.

The Ardhanarishvara images have broadly three body postures - the abhanga, a posture without a curve; the tribhanga, a posture with three mild curves; and, the atibhanga, a posture with extreme curves.

Variations in the name of this Deity:

• Ardhnarishwara
• Ardhanarishwara
• Ardhnariswara
• Ardhanariswara
• Ardhnari
• Ardhanarishvara
• Ardhanaarinateshwara
• Mohiniraaj
• Aldernalisuvara, mostly applied by Japanese, sometimes abbreviated to Alder.

Significance

Ideally, Ardhanarisvara points toward the perfect unity of male and female. In the figure of Ardhanarisvara Shiva and Shakti, his female energy, are non-dual and inseperable. Ardhanarisvara is an anthropomorphized manifestation of Parasiva, the abstract, formless Shiva comparable in His theological properties of Brahman, the monistic essence of the universe. Ardhanarisvara explains a fact of biological necessity, and that is the pairing of male and female in order to create life. Thus, Ardhanarisvara represents the transition from formlessness to form. However, some feminists have disagreed with this interpretation.

External links

• Ardhanari in Indian Art and Philosophy
• Ardhanari

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Goldberg, Ellen. "The Lord Who Is Half Woman: Ardhanarisvara in Indian and Feminist Perspective" State University of New York Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0791453261
• Walker, Barbara G. "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" HarperSanFrancisco, 1983. ISBN 978-0062509253
• Yadav, Neeta. "Ardhanarisvara" DK Print World Pvt.Ltd, 2004. ISBN 978-8124601693

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