Sambodhi 2011 Vol 34

Author(s): Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 21

Vol. XXXIV, 2011
The Morphology of the Trident' Weapon
15. If the reading may be kaṭak-avṛta, it would be ribbed as is found in actual instances. 16. For instance Sun temple, Modhera (1027), etc I have also taken ideas from the earlier images from Śamalāji where the form is still clearer and handsomer, such as of the famous dvarapalas and Virabhadra Śiva. (cf. 26. P. Shah, figs 1 and 21)
17. Luptvā rekhām sitaiḥ śüla, rakte dande kuśeśayam site rekha bhaved dandam Aisyam eva trisulakam Lakṣaṇasamuccaya 9. 5.
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18. Vajra, as earlier represented outside India, sometimes assumed the form of lightning. In a Gandharan instance, it is shown as bone in accordance with the legend of the creation of vajra from the bones of Rsi Dadhici: (cf. Sivaramamurti, p. 23 and fig. 3 a.) But soon after it was depicted as a weapon three pronged at both ends; (ibid. figs. 3 b, c & d ). That vajra should be that way is confirmed by an injunction in the Aparajitaprecha saying as it does that, vajra is a double trident: Vajram śûla dvayam: (235. 33).
19. The passage is rather too long and at places mutilated and unintelligible: hence not quoted.
20. A trident form represented on a Kusana coin (of Vasudeva) (cf. here fig. 8 e and also Rosenfield. pl. XI, No 214) has the left spike recalling Grecian fish hook prong but the right one is more in line with or anticipating the Indian form. The central prong is very rarely after a lance-head shown in Greek types, an exception is found on a coin dated to 387-374 B.C which shows such one: (cf. here fig 8 d). The progressive changes in Hellenic forms, from the relatively archaic (fig. 7) to the classical (fig 8) shows the persistence of the basic shape in essential particulars.
21. Also Sivaramamurti, fig. 34, 1 b & c.
22. Drawn after the image of a goddess from Dinajpur, Bengal: cf. R. D Banerji pl. LVI (a). 23. I must here mention an article written long ago by William Simpson entitled "The Trisula Symbol", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1890, pp 299317. The author's concern there is mostly with the origins.
List of Figures
1. The Western Indian trisula according to the Aparajitaprechā.
2. The Eastern Indian trisula according to the Lakṣaṇasamuccaya.
3. The South Indian trisüla (following vajra's weapon-head) according to the
Käranägama.
15
4. Gupta tridents:
a)
b)
c)
Of the Saivaite door guardian, Parvati temple, Nācană Kuthärä, c. 3rd quarter of the 5th century:
Mandsor, Siva's, c. early 6th century:
Of a Saivaite dvarapala, Näcană Kuthärä, c. late 5th century:
(all drawn after the photographs in the Archives of the American Institute of Indian Studies, Varanasi.)