Page 86 - 2021 March 17th, Indian and Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art, Christie's New York City

Shiva Bhikshatana

The present figure represents Shiva in his form of the 'Supreme Mendicant,' or Shiva Bhikshatana. A
guise of Shiva atoning for his sin of severing Brahma’s fifth head, Bhikshatana is commonly depicted
as a nude beggar, with mixed attributes of both Shiva and his fierce manifestation, Bhairava. In this
state, he wanders the universe as naked vagrant, soliciting alms using Brahma’s kapala as his begging
bowl. While there are no temples dedicated to Bhikshatana, and relatively few bronzes compared to
other manifestations of Shiva, the seventh-century Shaiva saint Appar references him as an early
processional image (see V. Dehejia, The Sensuous and the Sacred, New York, 2002, p. 14):
He goes on his begging rounds
amid the glitter of a pearl canopy

and gem-encrusted golden fans
devoted men and women follow him
along with Virati ascetics in bizarre garb

garlanded with white skulls
such is the splendor of Atirai day
in Arur, our Father’s town

This bronze figure of impressive size depicts the wandering beggar in a paradoxically splendorous
state. He wears several necklaces, armlets, elbow bands, bracelets, anklets, rings and jeweled
waistbands. A makara-form earring hangs from his right earlobe and a large gauged disc in his right.
The sacred thread runs across his torso. His matted hair is arranged into an elaborate headdress and
embellished with further adornments. Although a standard iconographical feature of Bhikshatana
is nudity, the present figure wears an animal pelt covering his loin. He is positioned as if he is in
stride— his left leg firmly on the ground, the right slightly bent. His feet are clad in wooden padukas,
an attribute not found in any other form of Shiva nor other god in the Hindu pantheon.

Each of the four arms carry Bhikshatana’s proper attributes. His lower right hand extends downwards,
pinching a branch of shrubbery in katakamudra near the mouth of the deer, who playfully leaps
upward. His upper right arm is raised, grasping a damaru, or hand drum. His lower left arm is reached
outward, holding Brahma’s kapala as a beggar’s bowl. Finally, his upper left arm carries a trishula,
behind his shoulders. A bhuta-gana, or goblin attendant, to Bhikshatana’s left hoists a large alms bowl.
The deer, bhuta-gana, and trishula were frequently separately cast in bronze images of Bhikshatana,
and for this reason, most comparable images do not retain all features.

The figure presents an impressive example of South Indian bronze casting from the Vijayanagara
period, exemplary in size, detail, and the preservation of otherwise separately cast assets. Despite
being a popularly cast processional image, relatively limited examples of Bhikshatana are published.
Compare the present figure to a Chola period figure of Bhikshatana at the Rajaraja Art Museum
(Cornell Digital Library no. MCD_02605), where Bhikshatana, missing his separately cast trishula,
is depicted in the more standard nude representation, with a snake coiling his waist as a belt. Also
compare the present figure to a contemporaneous example sold at Christie's New York, 12 September
2012, lot 587.