Name denoting any image of a Hindu
divinity believed to exist by virtue of
divine self-revelation, rather than by
being made or established by human
hands. These images are believed to be
intensely holy and powerful, and to have
a more pronounced sense of the deity’s
presence. They mark instances where
these deities have revealed themselves
out of grace, in order to become accessible to their devotees (bhakta), and
they are places where the deities are
believed to be particularly present and
“awake,” and thus more receptive to
requests for favors.
Svayambhu images can be found for
each of the three major Hindu deities.
Images of the Goddess are often natural
rock formations, such as the image of
the goddess Kamakhya, which is a natural cleft in the rock, or the stone images
of many of the Shiwalik goddesses; they
can take other forms as well, such as the
image of the goddess Jwalamukhi,
which is a burning vent of natural gas.
For the god Vishnu, the best-known
self-manifested form is the shalagram, a
black stone containing the spiralshaped fossil shell of a prehistoric sea
creature, which is believed to be a symbol of his discus (chakra). The god
Shiva’s pillar-shaped symbol known as
the linga appears in the widest variety of
self-manifested forms. Many of these
self-manifested lingas are found in natural rock formations, such as at
Kedarnath; Amarnath, where the linga
appears as a pillar of ice; and the bana
linga, which is a naturally rounded
stone, usually small enough to be easily
portable. Further, in the Hindu religious
groups that stress the subtle body, both
Shiva and the Goddess are believed to
be present within one’s own body. In
some cases for all these deities, carved
images are claimed to be self-manifest
forms; in their usual motif the statue’s
location is revealed to a favored devotee
in a dream. A self-manifested image
is a powerful claim for any site and will
bolster its importance as a place of
divine access.