The Development of Hindu Iconography c19.s6.19.3

c19.s6.19.3

the right hands that are in tact show a makara, a bird and *varadamudrā* (the others hold indistinct objects), while the left ones hold the tiny figures of a kūrma, a hastin, a Garuda, a cakra and a lāngala (the remaining left hand is broken). M. Ganguly identified this image as that of Avalokiteśvara, and remarked that this form of the Mahāyāna god was very rare, and that brief reference to such twelve-armed Lokeśvaras might be found in *Kāraṇḍavyūha*; but although he did not fail to notice some of its Viṣṇuite features, he did not understand the real character of these images.¹ The six-armed bronze figure from Sagardighi (Murshidabad, Bengal), and now in the same Calcutta Museum, appears to belong to this class of syncretistic images. It was described by Ganguly as Hṛṣīkeśa, a sub-variety of Viṣṇu, on insufficient data. The god stands under a canopy of seven three-headed Nāgas; the attributes of the image in its right hands are a staff surmounted by an elephant, a discus, the front hand being in the *varada* pose with the lotus mark on the palm, while a club, a conch-shell and a long staff surmounted by a Garuḍa are held by the left hands. The two attendant figures on the right and left are undoubtedly Padma- and Cakra-Puruṣas, for they hold lotus flower with long stalks, on which are placed a lotus bud and a discus respectively; a lotus is carved in the centre of the pedestal, a figure of Garuḍa being again carved on its left corner.