The Development of Hindu Iconography c14.64.2

c14.64.2

The thirteen saṃyutahastas are :—añjali, kapota, karkaṭa, svastika, khaṭaka, vardhamāna, utsaṅga, niṣidha or niṣadha, dola, puṣpapuṭa, makara, gajadanta and avahittha (vardhamāna is again mentioned after this, but that would enhance the number to 14 ; verses 5-7). The list given above is to a great extent similar to the various nr̥tyahastas mentioned in the Nāṭyaśāstra of Bharata and there is very little doubt that much of it, if not all, was borrowed from the same work. Nandikeśvara, the traditional author of the Abhinaya-darpaṇa speaks of as many as 28 single (asaṃyuta) and 24 combined (saṃyuta) hand-poses (hastas). His list is not the same as the Viṣṇudharmottara list, inasmuch as it supplies us with a few names like ardhapatākā, mayūra, candrakalā, sarpaśīrṣa, siṃhamukha, tāmracūḍa and triśūla in the case of the asaṃyuta typés (mṛga in the Viṣṇudharmottara list is omitted and solapadma in his list is probably the same as kālapadma in the other list) ; the saṃyuta hastas in the Abhinayadarpaṇa are more numerous, and new names, such as Śiva-liṅga, kartarī-svastika, śakaṭa, śaṅkha, cakra, saṃpuṭa, pāśa, kīlaka, matsya, kūrma, varāha, garuḍa, nāga-bandha, khaṭvā and bheruṇḍa are included in the list which, however, omits four, viz., vardhamāna, niṣidha, makara and gajadanta from the Viṣṇudharmottara one (khaṭaka in the latter is a mistake for kaṭaka which is written as kaṭaka-vardhana in the former).