Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/84

64 discus and the club and in the fourth exhibits the threatening finger-pose called tarjani. He is seated with his right leg hanging down from the pedestal and the left bent crosswise and placed on the same [fig. 160 (c), below].

Vishnu's vehicle Garuda is installed in every Vaishnavite temple right opposite to the central shrine and is a standing human figure of stone or mortar, with a beak-shaped nose and with spreading wings proceeding from his back on either side. He has his two arms folded over the breast in a worshipping posture (fig. 42). When made into a processional image of metal, Garuda is represented as kneeling on the left knee, the right foot being firmly placed on the ground and a serpent decorating his head.

Hanumān, the monkey-god, has been already referred to as a great devotee of Vishnu intimately connected with the incarnation Rāma-avatār. In Southern India he is very popular, even insignificant villages containing a shrine for Hanumān. He is represented in two postures. When included in the group of Rāma, Lakshmana and Sitā, he stands at a distance on one side, or opposite to them, in a humble and devotional attitude, with the two hands folded together, the tail hanging down close to his feet. In shrines exclusively