[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [The Development of Hindu Iconography](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.banerjea-1941) › c19.s5.2 # The Development of Hindu Iconography c19.s5.2 The Development of Hindu Iconography c19.s5.2 - **Language:** English ### [c19.s5.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.banerjea-1941.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). - [Previous: c19.s5.1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.banerjea-1941.c19.s5.1.3) - [Next: c19.s6.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.banerjea-1941.c19.s6.1) - [Up: c19.s5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.banerjea-1941.c19.s5) ## Linked texts (1) - [Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.upa.vaisnava.visnudharmottara) — Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.banerjea-1941.c19.s5.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.banerjea-1941.c19.s5.2) · Pramāṇa