The Development of Hindu Iconography c14.6

c14.6

It should be noted here that the fully developed and technical mudrās, that are described in such Indian works on dramaturgy as Nāṭyaśāstra, Abhinayadarpaṇa, etc., have no practical application in our present study. It is true that some south Indian types of dancing Śiva of the mediaeval period or the Vajrayāna deities of the same age in the north, specially the latter, are liberally characterised by these mudrās; but very few are the Hindu gods and goddesses, especially of the earlier period, whose hands are shown in any of the highly technical poses. Such mudrās as are reproduced by me in Plate V from a late Buddhist text on ritualism procured by P. C. Bagchi from Nepal (it contains many more such hand-poses) are usually adopted by a bhakta or a sādhaka in the Tāntric form of worship or sādhanā. R. K. Poduval distinguishes between ‘three broad divisions of mudrās, viz., Vaidic, Tāntric and Laukik (mudrās in Art).’ He says that he has recognised as many as ‘64 mudrās in Art and 108 in Tantra. The Vaidic mudrās are more or less finger signs or indications employed to regulate the stress, rhythm and intonation in the chanting of Vedas by Brahmins.’¹