The Development of Hindu Iconography c14.3

c14.3

The various poses in which the hands of the images and the figures arranged round them are shown are quite interesting. The technical term, used in the texts to denote these poses, is *mudrā*; sometimes the word *hasta* is also used to denote one or other of these hand-poses. The latter is generally used in cases where the whole of the arm along with the hand is shown in a particular pose (cf. *daṇḍahasta*, *gajahasta*, *kaṭi-hasta*, etc.), while the former usually denotes the peculiar posture in which the palm with the fingers is shown (cf. *jñāna-mudrā*, *cinmudrā* or *vyākhyāna-mudrā*, *yoga-* or *dhyāna-mudrā*, etc.). It must be observed, however, that sometimes, though comparatively rarely, both the terms are used in the texts to signify particular hand-poses; thus, in iconographic parlance, *abhaya-mudrā* and *abhaya-hasta* and *varada-mudrā* and *varada-hasta* are equally appropriate. It is true that the term *hasta* can also be used in association with an emblem or weapon in the hand of the deity; thus *padma-hasta*, *pustaka-hasta*, *gadā-hasta*, etc., would mean a hand holding a lotus, a book and a mace respectively. But sometimes, there has been confusion regarding the appropriate sense of a certain term; thus, *sūcī* means a ‘sewing needle,’ but it has also various other meanings, one of which is ‘the act of pointing’. Now when a deity is described as *sūcī-hasta*, he (or she) may hold a sewing needle in the hand : but the term may also signify the pointing pose. Again, *daṇḍa-hasta* may mean one holding a club in hand, or it may denote a specific gesture.