The Development of Hindu Iconography c19.s1.11.3

c19.s1.11.3

it is two-armed, the right hand being bent with the palm turned inwards as if holding a book (this pose is not described in the texts), the left hand holding probably a water-vessel (it is broken, its handle only being shown). Clad in diaphanously treated garments, and probably wearing a deer skin in the *upavītī* fashion, this bronze figure of the god presents to us a fine specimen of the Indian metallurgists' art of the late Gupta or early mediaeval period (Pl. XLV, Fig. 3). Brahmā in the lintel piece from Gauḍ (Malda) previously noted has three beardless faces, the left hands carrying a water-vessel and a sacrificial ladle, the two right ones being broken; both Sarasvatī and Sāvitrī are four-armed, the former showing *varamudrā*, *akṣamālā*, *vīṇā* and *kamaṇḍalu* in her four hands, while the latter holds *caurī*, *akṣamālā* and *pustaka* by three of her hands, the lower left one being in the *kaṭihasta* pose. An elaborately carved image of Brahmā seated on a *viśvapadma* in the *lalitākṣepa* pose in the Rajshahi Museum collection is interesting. Though it is of the late mediaeval period, the carving is not indifferent, and such details as the pot-bellied character of the god, the two-armed standing female attendants holding *caurī* in their hands, the swan mount, the donor couple, the garland-bearing flying Vidyādharas, etc. are all systematically displayed (*DHB*, Vol. I, p. 439, Pl. V, Fig. 15).