Harihara

Harihara
Harihara
	Painting of Harihara, circa 1825.
Other names	Shankaranarayana

Harihara (Sanskrit: हरिहर) is the dual representation of the Hindu deities Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara). Harihara is also known as Shankaranarayana ("Shankara" is Shiva, and "Narayana" is Vishnu).

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]

^ 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

[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

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