[Advaita-l] animal faced deities

[Venkata sriram P]

Dear Sarmaji,
 
Even the vyAkaraNa sAstra too is presided by a dEvata:
 
sitaM vyAkaraNaM jnEyaM mayUrAbhasaTOdaraM
vINAkarAnvitaM divyaM divyavastra vibhUShitaM
 
vyAkaraNa sAstra dEvata is of white hue; her hair resembles the colour of peacock feathers; has larger abdomen; holds vina and adorns with resplendent garments.
 
BTW, it is interesting to note that the deity that presides over jyOtiShya has the face of Cat (biDAlAsyaM indragOpanibhaM….); deity presiding over the yOga sAstra is “sarpa” (snake); nyAya sAstra presided by deity having lion face (simha mukha); purANa presided by deity having parrot face (shuka vaktra); sAnkhya sAstra devata has the face of mongoose (babhru vaktraM); kalpa devata has that of the face of crow; nirukta has the face of crane; chandas has the face of chakOra pakShi; itihAsa (history) is presided by the deity having boar face; nATya shAstra is presided by deity having deer face; ayurveda is presided by deity having monkey face (markaTa mukha); dhanurveda is presided by cuckoo (kOkila mukha) and BLAH BLAH…….. 
 
Huggh… the list is exhaustive..
 
 
Regs,
Sriram