The Development of Hindu Iconography c14.45

c14.45

¹ The extracts translated above are from Viṣṇudharmottara, Bk. III, Ch. 39, verses 39-50. The description of the poses is introduced there to show how they can be painted with the help of ‘decrease and increase’ (kṣaya and vṛddhi, translated by St. Kramrisch as ‘the science of foreshortening’). Kramrisch’s translation of many of these passages is inaccurate. Verses 49-50 read—Ekapādasamasthānaṃ dvitīyena tu vidgalam | Śarīraṃ ca salīlaṃ syāt sāvaṣṭambhaiḥ kvaciddhṛtam (in the edited text the reading is kvaciddrutam which is evidently incorrect)|| Līlāvilāsavi-bhrāntaṃ viśālajaghanasthalam | Sthiraikapādavinyāsaṃ strīrūpaṃ vilikhedbudhaḥ. These have been translated by her in this way—‘The flight (lit. running away) of stout men is in some cases depicted with one leg in a straight position and with the other (placed in such a way that) the wanton body should be (shown) with the neck stretched forward. The learned painter should paint a female figure with one