The Hindu Temple v2.c11.s1.66

v2.c11.s1.66

Navatāla or nine face lengths is the generally accepted rule concerning the height of the images of the gods.²⁵ One Tāla is subdivided into 12 aṅgulas.²⁶ Below are given, according to the ‘Śukranītisāra’ IV. 4, the proportions of images according to their relative height of the figures—up to the root of the hair on the forehead. The generally accepted proportion of nine Tālas being that of the gods, 8 Tālas would be that of the goddesses. Tālamāna, iconometry, however is not unanimous on this; according to the ‘Vaikhānāśāgama’ XXV,²⁷ Daśatāla, “10 Face lengths” images are those of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva; their images belong to the highest of the 3 sub-varieties of Daśatāla proportion;²⁸ the Great Goddesses would conform in their proportion with the middle variety of the 10 Faces height. The respective proportion depends on the place which the god holds in the divine hierarchy; the ‘Matsyapurāṇa’ CCLIX. 1-2, moreover makes the proportion of the images correspond also to those of the types on which they are based. The image of Viṣṇu as Rāma or Varāha has 10 Face lengths, whereas it has 7 Face lengths only when it represents his Dwarf incarnation (Vāmana).