Harihara

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For the city in Karnataka, India, see Harihar. For the founder of the Vijayanagara Empire, see Harihara I. For the poet, see Harihara (poet).
Harihara
Painting of Harihara, circa 1825.
Other namesShankaranarayana

Harihara (Sanskrit: हरिहर) is the dual representation of the Hindu deities Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara). Harihara is also known as Shankaranarayana ("Shankara" is Shiva, and "Narayana" is Vishnu).

Harihara is also sometimes used as a philosophical term to denote the unity of Vishnu and Shiva as different aspects of the same Ultimate Reality called Brahman. This concept of equivalence of various gods as one principle and "oneness of all existence" is discussed as Harihara in the texts of Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy.[1]

Some of the earliest sculptures of Harihara, with one half of the image as Vishnu and other half as Shiva, are found in the surviving cave temples of India, such as in the cave 1 and cave 3 of the 6th-century Badami cave temples.[2][3]

Concept

Vishnu (holding Sudarshana Chakra) and Shiva (lighter coloured half, wearing tiger skin, holding Trishula) combined in a single Harihara murti, sometimes referred to as Sivakesavaand "Haryadhamurti".

The diversity within Hinduism encourages a wide variety of beliefs and traditions, of which two important and large traditions are associated with Vishnu and Shiva. Some schools focus on Vishnu (including his associated avatars such as Rama and Krishna) as the Supreme God, and others on Shiva (including his different avatars such as Mahadeva and Pashupata). The Puranas and various Hindu traditions treat both Shiva and Vishnu as being different aspects of the one Brahman. Harihara is a symbolic representation of this idea. A similar idea, called Ardhanarishvara or Naranari, fuses masculine and feminine deities as one and equivalent representation in Hinduism.[4]

Depending on which scriptures (and translations) are quoted, evidence is available to support each of the different arguments. In most cases, even if one personality is taken as being superior over the other, much respect is still offered to both Vishnu and Shiva by the other's worshippers (i.e. Shiva is still regarded as being above the level of an ordinary jiva and 'the greatest of the Vaishnavas' by Vaishnavas who worship only Vishnu).[5]

Swaminarayan holds that Vishnu and Shiva are different aspects of the same God.[6][7][8]

Legends

The earliest mention of Harihara is likely to be observed in the Vishnu Parva of the Harivamsha, where Markandeya discusses the being.[9]

According to one legend, when Vishnu appeared as the enchantress Mohini in front of Shiva, the latter grew besotted with her and attempted to embrace her. At this moment, Mohini reverted to the true form of Vishnu, at which point the two deities fused as one being, Harihara.[10]

According to the Skanda Purana, the devotees of Shiva engaged in a dispute with Vishnu's devotees regarding the supremacy of their deities. To end this issue, Shiva and Vishnu merged into one being, Harihara.[11]

Depictions

Kertarajasa, the first king of Majapahit (1293-1309) from the temple Candi Simping in East Java.
Harihara sculpture, British Museum. The left half represents Shiva (with the Trishula) and the right half represents Vishnu (with the Chakra and Conch).

Harihara is depicted in art as split down the middle, one half representing Shiva, the other half representing Vishnu.

jewelry, representing his responsibility for maintaining world order. Vishnu's black skin represents holiness. Broadly, these distinctions serve to represent the duality of humble religious influence in the ascetic and authoritative secular power in the king or householder.[13] However, in other aspects Shiva also takes on the authoritative position of householder, a position which is directly at odds with the ascetic position depicted in his Harihara manifestation.[citation needed
]

Harihara has been part of temple iconography throughout South Asia and Southeast Asia, with some illustrations listed in the following table. In some states, the concept of Harihara appears through alternate names and its progeny

Temples with Harihara murti (half Vishnu, half Shiva)
Temple name Location Harihara murti date Reference
Badami cave temples Karnataka 6th century [14]
Dharmaraja Ratha Tamil Nadu 7th century [15]
Sri Ranganatha Perumal temple, Namakkal Tamil Nadu 6th to 8th century [16]
Birasini temple Madhya Pradesh
Harihareshwara Temple Karnataka 13th century [17]
Ossian temples Rajasthan two from 8th century,
one 9th century		 [18][19]
Deopani temple Assam two from 9th, 10th century [20]
Mukteshvara Temple Odisha 9th-10th Century CE
Saugal-tol temple Nepal statue: 6th century
temple: 12th to 16th century		 [21]
Purandi temple Nepal 11th century [22]
Prasat Andet Cambodia late 7th to early
8th century		 [23][24]
Candi Simping Indonesia 13th or 14th century [25]
Baijnath Temple Himachal Pradesh 13th century [26]
Hariharnath Temple Bihar Exact dates not known. Sonpur, Bihar

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0195120530
    , page 67
  2. ISBN 978-8120807051
    , pages 89-95, 115-124, 174-184
  3. ISBN 978-8120808775
    , pages 334-335
  4. ISBN 0-791453251
    , pages 1-4
  5. ^ "Lord Sambhu [Siva] the greatest of Vaishnavas and vice versa" from Bhag-Purana 12.13.16 Archived 9 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Saguna Brahman
    , indicating that Vishnu and Shiva are different forms of the one and same God.
  7. ^ Swaminarayan Satsang – Scriptures Archived 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ http://www.swaminarayansatsang.com/library/scriptures/scriptureexplanation.asp?IDProduct=762&idcategory=2=[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ Suresh, K. M. (1998). Sculptural Art of Hampi. Directorate of Archaeology and Museums. p. 68.
  10. ISBN 978-0-7864-9179-7
    .
  11. ^ www.wisdomlib.org (19 January 2021). "Greatness of Aśvattha Tree [Chapter 247]". www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
  12. ^ Rajarajan, R.K.K. (2021). "Rāmagiri Tēr Harihara and Harihara-Ekapāda Trimūrti". Journal of Indian History and Culture. 28: 187–213.
  13. ^ Thirty Thousand Years of Art. Phaidon Press Limited. p. 484
  14. ISBN 978-8120808775
    , pages 334-335
  15. ^ World Heritage Sites - Mahabalipuram Archived 12 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine Archaeological Survey of India, Government of India (2011), Quote: "The sculptures around the sanctum in the corner blocks depict simple forms of Siva, Harihara, Brahma-Sasta, Brahma, a delicately balanced representation of Ardhanarisvara."
  16. ^ https://www.tnarch.gov.in/Library%20BOOk%20PDF/NAMAKKAL%20CAVES.pdf
  17. ^ Henry Cousens (1996), The Chalukyan Architecture of Kanarese Districts, Archaeological Survey of India, page 93
  18. ^ Harihara temple 1 Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Osian, Jodhpur, India, University of Chicago Archives
  19. ISBN 978-9004107892
    , pages 42-46
  20. ISBN 978-8173053276
    , pages 55-57
  21. ^ Mary Slusser, Saugal-tol temple of Patan, INAS Journal, page 40-41 and 46-48 (images)
  22. ^ Mary Slusser (1996), The Purandi Hoard: Metalwork from Eleventh-Century Nepal, Artibus Asiae, Vol. 56, No. 1/2, pages 95-137, 139-143
  23. ISBN 978-0495915423
    , pages 443-444
  24. ^ Standing Hari–Hara, Pre–Angkor period The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US
  25. ISBN 978-6021766934
    , pages 246-248
  26. ^ "Baijnath Temple".

External links

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