[Advaita-l] Sankara artwork question

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Sun, 5 Aug 2018, michael via Advaita-l wrote:

> This link is to a painting depicting Sankaracharya and four individuals 
> I had always taken to be his disciples but to his left is a female. Who 
> is the female to the left of Sankaracharya?
>

This is an intersting picture.  You are right that it isn't his four 
(major) disciples.  Acharyas' Sureshwar, Padmapada, Hastamalaka, and 
Totaka are also depicted in sannyasi garb which these figures are not.

There are actually five persons in the background and so I thought they 
might represent the panchayatana devatas (the five most worshipped Devatas 
Shiva, Shakti, Vishnu, Surya and Ganesh Bhagavans.)  Shankaracharya is 
said to have instituted the practice of panchayatana puja to unite the 
bickering sects of Hinduism.  However while four of the five are readily 
identified, the figure behind Ganesh Bhagavan is not Surya Bhagavan as 
typically depicted iconographically but, I think, Kartikeya Bhagavan based 
on the spear He is carrying.  Now Tamil Smartas do worship Skanda 
(Kartikeya) Bhagavan along side the panchayatana Devatas (they call it 
Shannmata "six paths") but that still doesn't solve the mystery of the 
missing Surya Bhagavan.  But as He is not that widely worshipped, perhaps 
the artist just omitted Him.

Anyway to answer your question, the female one is Shakti.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>