Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c74.s3.32

v2.c74.s3.32

**Vismaya-hasta :**—It indicates astonishment and wonder ‘In this pose the forearm is held up with the fingers of the hand pointing up and the palm turned away from the observer’. ‘The relief illustrating the Caṇḍeśānugrahamūrti of Śiva in the Kailasanatha temple at Conjeevaram belonging to the Pallava period’ is an example. A railing pillar relief of the Śaka-Kushan period in the collection of Mathura Museum, depicts a male figure in this attitude. Dr. V. S. Agarwala and Upadhyaya have rightly identified this figure as the young hermit Ṛṣyaśṛṅga and they observe ‘This mudrā is indicative of astonishment (vismaya) and reflection (vitarka). The eye balls are turned upwards and the whole expression is one of deliberation in which an awareness of the immediate surroundings is absent. Satisfaction beams on the face’. Dr. Bannerjea comments: The story of Ṛṣyaśṛṅga is often narrated in the Brahmanical and Buddhist literature and the most suggestive moment in it is that in which the young Brahmacārī beholds a maiden for the first time; the artist has chosen this moment and has very effectively portrayed the pleasant wonder of the unsophisticated youth when sex-consciousness dawns in his mind’. A Kumārasambhava passage (III. 41) describing Nandī guarding the entrance of Śiva’s place of medtation has also been taken by Dr. Agarwala to illustrate this pose. Dr. Bannerjea gives a further artistic illustration of this pose in the bronze image of Hanūmān belonging to the temple of Shermadevi in the Tinnevelly district of Madras State. A Bharhut relief (victory of Buddha over Mara) also depicts this pose. ‘Exactly the same posture is shown on similar figures appearing in the scene of Buddha’s birth in numerous reliefs from Gandhara’.