South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources c8.113

c8.113

The *samavanga* pose is very well illustrated in the figures in plates (XVII, XXV & LIII). The wonderful static quality of such figures as Kārtikeya, and Chandrasekhara owes its beauty to the *samavanga* pose which was probably devised to symbolise tranquillity and repose. The examples of the *āvanga* pose will be found in plates (XV, XVI, XXXIII and the frontispiece). The difference in the attitude of the two legs suggested in the *avanga* pose recalls the attitude of the Greek Diadumenos which was invariably conceived as resting its weight on one leg (*uno crure insistere*). The text of the *Kāsyapīya* runs thus:—" *dakhinam susthitam pādam bāma pādancha hunchitam*," i.e., the right leg is upright and the left leg is drawn up or bent. One of the differences between the *samavanga* and *āvanga* poses is indicated in the relative distances of the toes in the two attitudes, laid down in *Kāsyapīya*: " *Pādāngusta dwayāshaibam byantaram (?) Sodasāngulam āvangam tad-bijaniyāt . . . . . . astāngulam dasanchaiba samabhangamiti smritam . . . . . binsatyangula-mākhyatamātibhanga—mitismritam.*" In the case of *avanga*, the distance between the toes should be 16 angulas, in *samavanga* 18 angulas and in *atibhanga* 20 angulas. “*Tad-trivagaikantu vagantu parshno stu dwan-taram bhabet.*” The relative distance between the ankles in each pose shall be one-third of the distance between the toes, *i.e.*, 5⅓ angulas, 6 angulas and 6⅔ angulas respectively. In such violent actions of the *atibhanga* pose as illustrated in the *Nataraja* and the *Gajahamurti*, this rule does not seem to apply. The plumb-line of the *avanga* pose is thus enunciated —