One and the same

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

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]
Birasini temple Madhya Pradesh
Harihareshwara Temple Karnataka 13th century [14]
Ossian temples Rajasthan two from 8th century,
one 9th century [15][16]
Deopani temple Assam two from 9th, 10th century [17]
Mukteshvara Temple Odisha 9th-10th Century CE
Saugal-tol temple Nepal statue: 6th century
temple: 12th to 16th century [18]
Purandi temple Nepal 11th century [19]
Prasat Andet Cambodia late 7th to early
8th century [20][21]
Candi Simping Indonesia 13th or 14th century [22]
Baijnath Temple Himachal Pradesh 13th century [23]
Hariharnath Temple Bihar Exact dates not known. Sonpur, Bihar
See also
Ardhanari
Lingaraj Temple
Trimurti
References
David Leeming (2001), A Dictionary of Asian Mythology, Oxford University Press,
ISBN 978-0195120530, page 67
Alice Boner (1990), Principles of Composition in Hindu Sculpture: Cave Temple
Period, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120807051, pages 89-95, 115-124, 174-184
TA Gopinatha Rao (1993), Elements of Hindu iconography, Vol 2, Motilal
Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120808775, pages 334-335
Ellen Goldberg (2002), The Lord who is half woman: Ardhanarisvara in Indian and
feminist perspective, SUNY Press, ISBN 0-791453251, pages 1-4
"Lord Sambhu [Siva] the greatest of Vaishnavas and vice versa" from Bhag-Purana
12.13.16 Archived 9 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
[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.
Swaminarayan Satsang - Scriptures Archived 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
http://www.swaminarayansatsang.com/library/scriptures/scriptureexplanation.asp?
IDProduct=762&idcategory=2=[permanent dead link]
"Heart of Hinduism: The Smarta Tradition". Archived from the original on 5
February 2011. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
Thirty Thousand Years of Art. Phaidon Press Limited. p. 484
Jones and Ryan (2007), Encyclopedia of Hinduism, ISBN 978-0816054589, page 58
TA Gopinatha Rao (1993), Elements of Hindu iconography, Vol 2, Motilal
Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120808775, pages 334-335
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."
Henry Cousens (1996), The Chalukyan Architecture of Kanarese Districts,
Archaeological Survey of India, page 93
Harihara temple 1, Osian, Jodhpur, India, University of Chicago Archives
Cynthia Packert Atherton (1997), The Sculpture of Early Medieval Rajasthan, BRILL,
ISBN 978-9004107892, pages 42-46
CD Tripathi (2008), Kamarupa-Kali?ga-Mithila: a politico-cultural alignment in
Eastern India : history, art, traditions, IIAS, ISBN 978-8173053276, pages 55-57
Mary Slusser, Saugal-tol temple of Patan, INAS Journal, page 40-41 and 46-48
(images)
Mary Slusser (1996), The Purandi Hoard: Metalwork from Eleventh-Century Nepal,
Artibus Asiae, Vol. 56, No. 1/2, pages 95-137, 139-143
Fred Kleiner (2012), Gardner�s Art through the Ages: A Global History, Cengage,
ISBN 978-0495915423, pages 443-444
Standing Hari�Hara, Pre�Angkor period The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
USA
Edi Sedyawati et al (2013), Candi Indonesia: Seri Jawa, Direktorat Jenderal
Kebudayaan, ISBN 978-6021766934, pages 246-248
"Baijnath Temple".
External links