Terrific Manifestations Of Siva Virabhadra

The present monograph on Terrific Manifestations of Siva: Virabhadra is the outcome of my research in the Department of Sculpture and Art History and the School of Philosophy of the Tamil University. At the outset itself I would like to express my sincere regards to the Hon'ble Vice Chancellor of the Tamil Unisersity (Prof. C. Subramanian), the Registrar (Prof. K. Bhaskaran), and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Chairman of the Department of Sculpture and Art History (Prof. Raju Kalidos) and my guide (Prof. G. Kulathuran) for their cooperation in the completion of the work. I am deeply obliged to my previous tutor, Prof. A. Veluswamy Suthanthiran, who is no more.

It is a known fact that research on individual manifestations of Siva is lacking. The doyen, C. Sivaramamurti, has worked on Nataraja. A Canadian scholar, Ellen Goldberg, has worked on Ardhanarisvara. B.N. Sharma has written booklets aspects of Siva such as Sadasiva. To my knowledge works on Virabhadra, a terrific manifestion of Siva, are scarce. I am nostalgic of the subject because Virabhadra happens to be my kuladevata. We have a clan temple for the Lord at Bōḍinayakkanpatti village, falling within the jurisdiction of Tintukkal (Agnlicised Dindigul).

**Contents and Sample Pages**