Elements of Hindu Iconography v4.c26.36

v4.c26.36

constructed for this deity in the rājadhāni (the capital city) of a reigning sovereign is to be one with six faces, six arms, twelve eyes and twelve or six ears. It should keep in its hands the śakti, khaḍga, akṣamālā, abhaya, kukkuṭa and kheṭaka. The image that should be set up in a grāma or a prāsāda (palace) should have twelve arms; the right hands of this image should carry the śakti, musala, khaḍga, chakra, pāśa and abhaya; and the left hands, the vajra, dhanus, kheṭaka, śikhi-dhvaja (a banner made of peacock feathers), aṅkuśa and varada. (See Pl. CXXVIII.) This figure should be of the colour of the rising sun and be draped in red clothes and be adorned with a karaṇḍa-makuṭa, and the yajñōpavīta and be seated on a peacock with, on either side, a figure of a dēvī. Though different types of images of Subrahmaṇya are prescribed for consecration in different kinds of villages there is no positive objection to any of the five types of the image of this deity, namely, those with two, four, six, eight or twelve arms, being set up in any kind of town.