Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c17.20

c17.20

There was much elasticity in grouping these symbols and freedom to incorporate them into iconographic forms as desired. Thus it became possible to formulate a large number of images by the different religionists and then to start a new chain of their glorification. The symbols assumed a fresh exalted position in association with the different deities and they did not suffer any abatement either of meaning or high rank enjoyed by them for many centuries. For example, Suparṇa became the Garuḍa of Viṣṇu; Chakra the Dharmachakra of Buddha and Mahāvīra and Sudarśana Chakra of Viṣṇu; Vṛitra the serpent of Indra as the serpent in connection with the life-stories of Buddha, Mahāvīra, Śiva and Viṣṇu.