Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/219

Rh if it were drawing water; in the left hands give him a shield, a bow, a discus, and a conch. If you give him four hands, omit the bow and the arrow, the sword and the shield. If you give him two hands, let the right hand be drawing water, the left holding a conch. If the figure is to represent Baladeva, the brother of Narayana, put earrings into his ears and give him the eyes of a drunken man.

"If you make both figures, Narayana and Baladeva, join with them their sister Bhagavati, the wife of Siva, her left hand resting on her hip a little way from her side, and her right hand holding a lotus. If you make her four-handed, place in the right hands a rosary and a hand drawing water; in the left hands, a book and a lotus. If you make her eight-handed, place in the left hands a pot, a lotus, a bow, and a book; in the right hands, a rosary, a mirror, an arrow, and a water-drawing hand. If the figure is to represent Samba, the son of Vishnu, put only a club in his right hand. If it is to represent Pradyumna, the son of Vishnu, place in his right hand an arrow, in his left hand a bow. And if you make their two wives, place in their right hands a sword, in the left a buckler.

"The idol of Brahma has four faces toward the four sides, and is seated on a lotus. The idol of Skanda, the son of Mahadeva, is a boy riding on a peacock, his hand holding a sakti, a weapon like a double-edged sword, which has in the middle a pestle like that of a mortar. The idol Indra holds in its hand a diamond