The Development of Hindu Iconography c16.72.4

c16.72.4

in both channavīra is shown across the breast, the curled ends of the symbol simulate arms and legs, and the head and the torso are clearly fitted in the general outline of the śrīvatsa. If we compare them with the third figure (Pl. XIX, Fig. 2) we can at once see how the symbol-cum-image has developed into a full-fledged image of Gaja-Lakṣmī with hands holding lotus and conch-shell (indicative of the two nidhis). She is seated in paryaṅkāsana (so called ‘European fashion’) on a raised lotus, is endowed with kucabandha (breast-band), mekhalā (jewelled waist-band) and other ornaments, with the usual elephants on either top corner. These two Kāveripakkam sculptures and the Tanjore bronze to be dated in the early mediaeval period demonstrate in a very interesting manner how close was the relation between the aniconic symbol and the icon itself, and how, in this case at least, the latter was supposed to evolve from the other.¹