Nandi - Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, India
Posted by: denben
N 24° 53.242 E 074° 38.667
43R E 464088 N 2752523
The colossal stone statue of Shiva's sacred bull, Nandi, is located in front of the Samadhishwar Temple inside Chittorgarh Fort, Rajasthan.
Waymark Code: WMQ414
Location: India
Date Posted: 12/15/2015
Views: 1
Nandi is the name for the bull which serves as the mount (Sanskrit: Vahana) of the god Shiva and as the gatekeeper of Shiva and Parvati. In Hindu Religion, he is the chief guru of eighteen masters including Patanjali and Thirumular. Temples venerating Shiva display stone images of a seated Nandi, generally facing the main shrine. There are also a number of temples dedicated solely to Nandi.
The application of the name Nandi to the bull is in fact a development of recent centuries, as Gouriswar Bhattacharya has documented in an illustrated article entitled "Nandin and Vrsabha". The name Nandi was earlier widely used instead for an anthropomorphic deity who was one of Shiva’s two door-keepers, the other being Mahakala. The doorways of pre-tenth-century North Indian temples are frequently flanked by images of Mahakala and Nandi, and it is in this role of Shiva’s watchman that Nandi figures in Kalidasa’s poem the Kumarasambhava.
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