die in his sixteenth year. The Rishi craved the latter boon, and his wife in due course bore him a son who was called Mārkandēya. As the child grew up and showed wonderful genius, the father's heart grew sad at the prospect of his impending fate, and revealed the secret to Mārkandēya, who forthwith set out on a pilgrimage to all of Siva's tirths, and while he was worshipping the lingam at Tirukkadanur in the Tanjore district, Kāla, the Lord of Death, sent his messengers to take him. They tried to bind the boy's soul with the fatal noose, but failed to do so, and went back to report the case to their master. Kāla, who then came in person, was at the point of taking the young Brahman as he still prayed when Siva Himself in wrath burst out of the lingam and with his lotus foot struck Kāla senseless to the ground. As a reward for Mārkandēya's devotion Siva then bestowed upon him the gift of eternal youth, so that he is still believed to live as one of the blessed saints.
Another aspect of Siva is that of Dakshinā-mūrti, which represents the gracious Lord of Knowledge who taught the Rishis philosophy, music, and art. These attributes are also transferred to Siva's sakti, Dūrgā or Devi, who in the beautiful bronze from the Madras Museum (Pl. LXIV, b) closely resembles the Java sculpture of Avalokītēshvara given in Pl. LVII, a.
But the most characteristic conception of Saiva sculpture, and the one to which no parallel is found in early Buddhist art, is that of Nātārāja, "the Lord of the Dance." It is useless to look for the inception of this motif in the earliest stone and metal images of it, by which we can trace it back to about the sixth century a.d., for we have to reckon with a period of unknown antiquity when it must have been carved in wood, and with a still more remote
