The Development of Hindu Iconography c19.s5.2

c19.s5.2

who is partly endowed with the character of Viṣṇu (cf. human representations of Adhikāranandin already discussed). This is evidently Sudarśana, the *cakra* par *excellence* of Viṣṇu (Pl. XXVI, Fig. 4). Sudarśana-cakra is described in the *Silparatna* and other texts either as an eight- or sixteen-armed Viṣṇu placed inside a Ṣaṭkoṇacakra (two interlacing equilateral triangles in the midst of a rayed disc.) The Bengal sculpture is a new variety of Sudarśana, and was either set up as a main image in a subsidiary shrine in a Vaiṣṇava temple, or it served as the capital piece of a column, like the Janiform Garuḍa on the top of a Garuḍadhvaja noticed above. The Viṣṇudharmottara description of Cakrapuruṣa is different. It appears there as ‘a male figure with round eyes and a drooping belly; it is to carry a *cauri*, and is to be adorned with various ornaments. It is also to be carved in such a manner as to indicate that it is showing a desire to gaze upon Viṣṇu; the left hand of the god should be made to rest upon the head of Cakrapuruṣa’ (Bk. III, Ch. 85, vv. 13-4).