Elements of Hindu Iconography v2.c16.s8.t3.22

v2.c16.s8.t3.22

Two photographs, Pls. LXXX and LXXXI, are reproduced in illustration of the Viṇādhara-Dakshiṇāmūrti; both of them are identical in shape and in the details of moulding.* Śiva is seen standing with his right leg kept firmly on the ground, while the left leg is placed a little forward slightly bent. The front two hands are held in the *kaṭaka* pose, the left one looking up and the right one looking down. Evidently a separately cast *vīṇā* was intended to be inserted in the hands whenever wanted and hence this instrument is not to be seen in either image. The back right hand carries a *paraśu* and the back left one a *mṛiga*. There are all sorts of elaborately sculptured ornaments on the person of the figures. The first figure (Pl. LXXX) belongs to the Madras Museum, while the second (Pl. LXXXI) is to be found in the temple at Vaḍaraṅgam in the Tanjore district. The second, an earlier piece of sculpture, is of very high artistic value; the first is of rather inferior workmanship.