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Vol-1, XX1X
BULL AND NANDI IMAGES OF GUJARAT
We have already seen above, that the bull was at first the attributive epithet of several of the Vedic divinities including Rudra, but it came to denote Śiva, especially in the Post-Vedic age." Nandīn Nansīkeśvara or Adhikāranandin are some of the various names by which Śiva's mount the Bull came to be described in the epics and Puranic texts.
Nandi has been described in the literature also one of the chief personal attendants (Gana) of Siva. Kālidāsa has described in the literature also as one of the chief personal attendants (Gana) of Siva. Kālidāsa describes Nandi as keeping guard over the enterance of Siva's abode Kailāsh with a golden staff resting against his left forearms and silencing the Ganas with a finger of his right hand placed on his mouth.12 In the Rāmāyana, Nandi is described as having general appearance of a monkey (Vānārarūpam) and the body of a fierce dark brown short-armed powerful dwarf.13 In various Purānas he is described as the chief of the Ganas.14
In another tradition, Nandi under the title of Adhikāranandii , is presented as a bull-faced being, or as a duplicate of Śiva, in good many south Indian temples. 15 The accounts of these aspects of Nandi are given in the Purānas. The aspect of Adhikaranandi is described in the Siva Purana, Linga Purāna and Bhāgavata Purana.16 Among several images of Adhikāranandi with bull-face, the image in the collection of the Sanskrit University Museum, Varanasi is unique.17
The idea about the bull being a mount of the god seems to have originated before the 1st century B. C. Śiva used to be represented in theriopomorphic form as bull on coins in the Gandhara region. By the time, the Kusānas had began their rule, the bull was recognised as his mount.18
The humped bull appears on several seals from spooner's finds at Basarh showing Saivite association'9. The seals unearthed by Sir John Marshall at Bhītā show bull along with other saiva emblems20. An intaglio in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, belonging to the late Kusāna period, represents four-armed Siva seated on his mount Nandi. Here it may be pointed out that Siva's Vrsavāhana form (riding his bull-vāhana) has been referred to by Kālidāsa at several places.21 There is a referance to the images of Nandi (Bull) in Mahābhārata also.22
In numerous images of Śiva-Pārvatī, belonging to late Kuşāna, Gupta and Post Gupta period, the deities are shown standing in front of a Nandī. Besides this,
