Idol obtained from Harsha Hill, now housed in the Government Museum, Sikar. This is one of the many images of yoginis found at the site hinting at a lost yogini temple compound. Contextualizing this image with several other relevant images suggests a maturity of Shakti and tantric traditions at the site. The two-armed yogini is seated in the lalitasana posture. She holds a mala in her right hand and a cup in her left hand. Her head is lost. The yogini is holding a cup in her left hand, often associated in tantric traditions with the cup containing the symbolic nectar of spiritual bliss attained after the completion of tantric sadhana. The two-armed yogini is seated in the lalitasana posture. She holds a mala in her right hand and a cup in her left hand. Her head is lost.
Image courtesy: Government Museum, Sikar
Idol obtained from Harsha Hill, now housed in the Government Museum, Sikar. The four-armed seated figure, likely of Shaiva affiliation, occupies a central place in the architectural fragment. He holds a trident and likely a staff in his upper two hands, while the lower hands hold a citron in the left hand and an unclear object in the right. While the figure lacks an ithyphallic representation, it could still be interpreted as Lakulisha. Flanking this central figure in the subset niches on either side are two apsaras.
Image courtesy: Government Museum, Sikar
The memorial stone, in the Government Museum Sikar, bears an unpublished epigraph recording the death of an individual named Mahipal. A niche carved on the top of the panel depicts a Shaiva ascetic on one side of a shivalinga and a devotee, likely perhaps Mahipal, standing on the other side. Though its precise provenance is unknown, this artifact sheds important information about the Shaiva landscape of the city of Sikar in the 12th century CE.
Image courtesy: The Government Museum, Sikar
This is a depiction of Shiva in the form of lingodhbhav-murti. Stella Kramrisch described this particular image from Harsha: ‘In the universal night the pillar there was nothing; fiery pillar appeared above the waters. Other than it had no beginning no end. Brahma flew into the empyrean and failed to reach its top; Vishnu dived into the depth of the sea and failed to find its bottom. The two great gods thereupon submit and become the acolytes of the fiery pillar. The Fiery Pillar is in its splendour to its greatness and Shiva; he reveals himself. The stele is traversed in its middle by the Fiery Pillar. On the left Brahmā is seen soaring upwards; he is also seen standing, his self-appointed mission unfulfilled, an attendant divinity of the Fiery Pillar. To the right of the Pillar, Viṣnu, blowing his conch, hurls himself downward with the same result; he becomes an acolyte of the Pillar and his standing image swings in the same rhythm as the image of Brahmā. The top of the slab, the high region traversed by the pillar, is a palpitating mass of movement and its shapes are Hamsa-birds and celestial spirits. The vision of the flaming pillar has been given form in this image competently though not adequately; the form is sleek and slight but succeeds in translating the Fiery Pillar into the trunk of the Tree whose branches are Brahmā, Viṣnu and the celestial host.’ (Hindu Temples, vol 2, Plate LXVII, page 402). This is one of the most iconic and celebrated images of lingodhbhav-murti, reputed for its delicacy of the figures, sense of movement and visual impact. Within the incorporative landscape of Harsha Hill, including shrines dedicated to various deities, this image marks the Shaiva domination and supremacy at the complex.
Image courtesy: Akbari Fort and Museum, Ajmer
A four-armed Indra placed inside a devakostha-niche, easily identifiable by his vahana, an elephant. The loose architectural fragment from Harsha Hill is now housed in the Government Museum, Sikar. Although the two hands on the left side are broken, the upper right holds an ankush and the lower one gracefully rests on his right leg.
Image courtesy: Government Museum, Sikar
A four-armed Ganesha, once adorning the temple wall on the Harsha Hill is now housed in the Government Museum, Sikar It is depicted holding an axe and a mala in his lower two hands. The upper two hands carry a bowl of sweets and possibly a flower.
Image courtesy: Government Museum, Sikar
This sculpture is arguably the oldest at the shrine, dated by Ambika Dhaka to the 8th century CE The sculpture thus significantly precedes the Harshnath Temple, which was built in the second half of the 10th century. The Harshnath stone inscription records the devotion towards Lord Harsha by an early founding figure of the Chauhan line, Guvaka-I, a local chieftain and feudatory of the powerful imperial Pratihara dynasty, who lived roughly during the first quarter of the ninth century CE. The Shaiva association with the hill may have preceded the time of Guvaka, but what can be said with certainty is the much older association of the hill with Surya. The figure exhibits standard iconographic features of the Sun God, such as fully bloomed lotuses in two hands, a long tunic, boots and retinue figures in pairs like his companions - Danda and Pingala, his wives and his sons, Ashvins.