Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s7.36

c13.s7.36

In the Kuṣāṇa period, however, regular images of Viṣṇu began to be made. Several types of such images are found wearing a mukuṭa on the head and other ornaments on the body, and dressed in a dhotī and a scarf. The position of the four hands is rather remarkable, the right hand is held in abhayamudrā, the corresponding left hand is placed nearly the hip (i. e. akimbo) and holds an amṛta-ghaṭa (monk's bottle or nectar-glass), the two extra hands a mace (gadā) and Chakra respectively. If the two extra hands are excluded, the earliest form of Viṣṇu is exactly similar to that of the Bodhisattva Maitreya and both must be taken to be the products of the same formula. [Fig. 170].