Harihara

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For the city in Karnataka, India, see Harihar. For the founder of the Vijayanagara
Empire, see Harihara I.

Left: Vishnu (left half—blue) and Shiva (right half—white). Right: A 6th-century Harihara murti in Badami cave

temples of Karnataka.

Harihara (Sanskrit: हरिहर) is the fused representation of Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara)

from the Hindu tradition. Also known as Shankaranarayana ("Shankara" is Shiva, and
"Narayana" is Vishnu) like Brahmanarayana (Half represents Brahma and half
represents Vishnu), Harihara is thus revered by both Vaishnavites and Shaivites as a
form of the Supreme God.[citation needed]
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]
 Contents

 1Concept
o 1.1One and the same
 2Depiction in art
 3Muthappan
 4Gaudiya Vaishnavism
 5See also
 6References
 7External links
o 7.1Nature of Shiva and Vishnu
o 7.2Harihara images

Concept[edit]

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]
One and the same[edit]
Swami Sivananda maharaj states: "Shiva and Vishnu are one and the same entity. They
are essentially one and the same. They are the names given to the different aspects of
the all-pervading Supreme Parabrahman the Supreme Being or the Absolute. ‘Sivasya
hridayam vishnur-vishnoscha hridayam sivah—Vishnu is the heart of Shiva and likewise
Shiva is the heart of Vishnu’."
Swaminarayan holds that Vishnu and Shiva are different aspects of the same God. [6][7]
[8]
 Notably, the Swaminarayan view is a minority view among Vaishnavites, but the
dominant view in contemporary Hinduism which follows the Smarta view in general.[9]

Depiction in art[edit]

Statue of Harihara. This statue is the mortuary deified portrayal of King 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. The Shiva half will have the matted locks of a yogic
master piled high on his head and sometimes will wear a tiger skin, reserved for the
most revered ascetics. Shiva's pale skin may be read as ash-covered in his role as an
ascetic. The Vishnu half will wear a tall crown and other 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. [10] 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.
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; for example, temples
incorporating Ayyappan and Shasta deities in Kerala illustrate this Hindu tradition there
since at least the 7th century.[11]

Temples with Harihara murti (half Vishnu, half Shiva)

Temple name Location Harihara murti date Reference

Badami cave temples Karnataka 6th century [12]

Dharmaraja Ratha Tamil Nadu 7th century [13]

 Temples with Harihara murti (half Vishnu, half Shiva)

Temple name Location Harihara murti date Reference

Birasini temple Madhya Pradesh

Harihareshwara Temple Karnataka 13th century [14]

two from 8th century,

Ossian temples Rajasthan [15][16]

one 9th century

Deopani temple Assam two from 9th, 10th century [17]

Mukteshvara Temple Odisha 9th-10th Century CE

statue: 6th century

Saugal-tol temple Nepal [18]

temple: 12th to 16th century

Purandi temple Nepal 11th century [19]

late 7th to early

Prasat Andet Cambodia [20][21]

8th century

Candi Simping Indonesia 13th or 14th century [22]

Himachal
Baijnath Temple 13th century [23]

Pradesh

Hariharnath Temple Bihar Exact dates not known. Sonpur, Bihar

Muthappan[edit]
Vishnu (called Thiruvappana or Valiya Muttapan) and Shiva (called Vellatom or Cheriya Muttapan)

Lord Muthappan, worshipped in Kerala is considered as the personification

of Vishnu (called Thiruvappana or Valiya Muttapan) and Shiva (called Vellatom or
Cheriya Muttapan).The Muthappan temple at Parassinikadavu, Kannur is one of the
main temple dedicated to him.[24]

Gaudiya Vaishnavism[edit]

Pancha-Tattva deities at ISKCON temple:Advaita Acharya on the extreme left

In Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the Sri Advaita Acharya one of the Pancha Tattva is

considered as the combined incarnation or expansion of Sri Maha Vishnu and Sri
Sadashiva (Lord Shiva in Goloka).[25]

See also[edit]
 Ardhanari
 Lingaraj Temple
 Trimurti
References[edit]
1. ^ David Leeming (2001), A Dictionary of Asian Mythology, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-
0195120530, page 67
2. ^ Alice Boner (1990), Principles of Composition in Hindu Sculpture: Cave Temple Period,
Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120807051, pages 89-95, 115-124, 174-184
3. ^ TA Gopinatha Rao (1993), Elements of Hindu iconography, Vol 2, Motilal
Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120808775, pages 334-335
4. ^ Ellen Goldberg (2002), The Lord who is half woman: Ardhanārīśvara in Indian and feminist
perspective, SUNY Press, 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. ^ [1], verses 47, 84, of their scripture, Shikshapatri, [2] states, "And the oneness
of Narayana and Shiva should be understood, as the Vedas have described both to be brahmaroopa,
or form of Brahman, i.e., 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. ^ "Heart of Hinduism: The Smarta Tradition". Archived from  the original on 5 February 2011.
Retrieved 5 September  2009.
10. ^ Thirty Thousand Years of Art. Phaidon Press Limited. p. 484
11. ^ Jones and Ryan (2007), Encyclopedia of Hinduism, ISBN 978-0816054589, page 58
12. ^ TA Gopinatha Rao (1993), Elements of Hindu iconography, Vol 2, Motilal
Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120808775, pages 334-335
13. ^ 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."
14. ^ Henry Cousens (1996), The Chalukyan Architecture of Kanarese Districts, Archaeological
Survey of India, page 93
15. ^ Harihara temple 1, Osian, Jodhpur, India, University of Chicago Archives
16. ^ Cynthia Packert Atherton (1997), The Sculpture of Early Medieval Rajasthan,
BRILL, ISBN 978-9004107892, pages 42-46
17. ^ CD Tripathi (2008), Kāmarūpa-Kaliṅga-Mithilā: a politico-cultural alignment in Eastern India :
history, art, traditions, IIAS, ISBN 978-8173053276, pages 55-57
18. ^ Mary Slusser, Saugal-tol temple of Patan, INAS Journal, page 40-41 and 46-48 (images)
19. ^ Mary Slusser (1996), The Purandi Hoard: Metalwork from Eleventh-Century Nepal, Artibus
Asiae, Vol. 56, No. 1/2, pages 95-137, 139-143
20. ^ Fred Kleiner (2012), Gardner’s Art through the Ages: A Global History, Cengage, ISBN 978-
0495915423, pages 443-444
21. ^ Standing Hari–Hara, Pre–Angkor period The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
22. ^ Edi Sedyawati et al (2013), Candi Indonesia: Seri Jawa, Direktorat Jenderal
Kebudayaan, ISBN 978-6021766934, pages 246-248
23. ^ "Baijnath Temple".
24. ^ "Muthappan devotees gather for festivities". 9 January 2019. Retrieved 29 March  2020.
25. ^ "Advaita Acharya – Biography". Retrieved  29 March 2019.
External links