Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/287

 The symbols of the gods and goddesses apart from the Symbols and weapons which they wield, such as the goad (Plate IV, No. 8), wea P ns - noose (No. 9), disc (Nos. 10 and I0a), shield (No. 12), sword (No. 13), pestle (No. 14), axe (No. 15), trident (Nos. 16 and l6a), thunderbolt (Nos. 20 and 20a), club (Plate III, No. l), sakti or vel (No. 2), tanka (No._3|, arrow (No. 4), bow (No. 5), fire (No. 6) and khatvdnga (No. ll), are very few. Goddesses, perhaps as a sig_n_of__beauty, hold in their hands aJotus r JDU_d (Plate IV, No. 18 and Plate I, No. 3), a mirror (PlatelnTNo. 8) or a parrot perching on the back of the palm (Plate IV, No. 19). The rosary (Plate IV, Nos. I and 2), the water-pot (Nos. 3 and 4), the book (No. 5), the position of the fingers known as chinmudrd (Plate III, No. 16) and jnanamudrd (No. 14) denote meditation, purity and knowledge. The conch of Vishnu (Plate IV, No. II and Plate I, No. 4#), the kettle-drum dhakka of Siva (Plate III, No. 12 and Plate IV, No. 24) and the bell in the hands of some gods and goddesses (Plate III, No. 7) may be taken as equipments for fight, though not as actual weapons, offensive or defensive. The deer held by Siva as a trophy on the occasion when he destroyed the sacrifice of his father-in-law Daksha (Plate IV, No. 17), the serpent (Plate I, No. 46) and the kapala (Plate III, No. 21 and Plate IV, No. 23^) may be considered only as symbols specially^disj tinguishing him from the other gods. The same has to be said of the kukkuta "cock" (Plate III, No. 30) of Skanda, of the broken tusk 1 (Plate IV, No. 2l) of Vinayaka and of the flag (No. 22) of Vayu, " the god of winds."

Some of the purely artistic positions of the hand are : the Positions of simhakarna (Plate I, No. l), the kataka (Plate IV, No. 40), the the hand - katiga "hand resting on the waist" (Plate IV, No. 6), the position in which the hand hangs down freely "like the tail of a cow " (Plate I, No. 2), the placing of the kurpara by Siva on the head of the bull (Plate III, No. 9), the gajahasta of Nataraja (No. 19) and the position in which Siva as Bhiksha- tana touches the mouth of the antelope (Plate III, No. I7). 2 Some other significant positions of the hand are those known as siichi " the pointing finger " (Plate III, No. 13 and Plate IV, No. 23), tarjani "the threatening finger" (Plate III, Nos. 18 and 26) and the vismaya "wonder" (Plate III, Nos. 15 and 22 and Plate I, No. 4). The three latter are generally found in the figures of Siva and of guardian deities.

1 For the story of the broken tusk with which Vinayaka (Ganapati) is stated to have written the Mahabharata, see above, p. 176.

2 This last position is called si>nkakarna. In images of Tripurantakamurti, the arrow is held by one r-f the right hands which is, again, stated to be in the simhcikarna pose.