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Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c74.s5: III. Postures of the Legs

Vāstu-śāstra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c74.s5

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English

III. Postures of the Legs

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The third variety of the Mudrās as described by this text has been termed by me as postures (not poses) of the legs. . In a previous chapter under the general classification of the images, one of the classifications consists of three varieties in relation to the Dhruva Beras of Viṣṇu images namely Sthānaka (standing posture), Āsana (sitting posture) and Śayana (reclining position). Accordingly in the representation of the male Sthānaka mūrties, six different standing postures are adopted by the author of the Samarāṅgaṇa-Sūtradhāra and they are:—

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| 1. | Vaiṣṇavam | 4. | Maṇḍalam |
| 2. | Samapādam | 5. | Ālīḍham |
| 3. | Vaiśākham | 6. | Pratyālīḍham |

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The text also offers three postures in relation to representation of the female-sthānaka mūrties—‘vide S. S. 80-13.

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**1. Vaisnavam.**—It is so called because the presiding deity, to whome this particular pose is most favourable is Viṣṇu. The distance between the two legs should be of 2½ tāla and one of the legs to be shown as poised and the other tryaśra, a bit bent in a triangular position, both the thighs being a bit bent down (80. 3-5).

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**2. Samapādam.**—Its presiding deity is Brahmā. It is also called Samabhaṅga—this denotes the equipoised body where ‘the right and left of the figures are disposed symetrically, the Sūtra or plumb line passingthrough the navel, from the crown of the head to a part midway between the heels’ (Tagore). “Thus”, says J. N. Bannerjea, “the weight of the whole body is equally distributed on both the legs and the pose is firm, erect, there being no bend in the body. This posture is illustrated in many Indian images which are shown in this attitude, the most typical being the early and late figures of the Jain Tīrthaṅkaras”. Sirimā devata and many other Vyantara-devatās on the Bharhut railing stand in the samabhaṅga attitude. Early Indian coins and seals such as varieties of Śiva on Ujjayinī and Audumbara coins; Mahāsena on Huvishka's coins; Gajalaksmi on Bhita seal also illustrate this pose.

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**3. Vaiśākha.**—Here the distance between the two legs is 3½ tāla—one leg being aśra and the other pakṣasthita. This posture is known as Vaiśākha after the god Viśakha, who is the presiding deity of this posture. As already pointed out this posture is pecular to the archors.

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**4. Mandalam.**—Its presiding deity is Indra .The distance between the two legs being 4 tālas—one leg tryaśra, the other pakṣasthita and the waist and the knee being identical ( . . . . . ). It has already been noticed and explained above (cf., V. D.’s definitions and Bannejera’s translations thereof ).

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**5. Ālidham.**—Rudra is its Presiding Lord. In it the distance of the stretched up right leg and its left companion between each other is five tālas.

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**6. Pratyālidha.**—It is the reverse of the Āliḍha. The right leg was stretched up in the former. Here it is bent up and the left one is spread, instead of being bent down.

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“Āliḍha-pāda, which is sometimes loosely called āliḍhāsana, denotes that particular mode of standing in which the right knee is thrown to the front and the leg retracted, while pratyāliḍha-pāda is just its opposite; both these attitudes are adopted in shooting arrows and one of the earliest depictions of these poses is to be found in the two arrow-shooting figures of Uṣā and Pratyuṣā, goddesses of dawn, accompanying Sūrya, in a pillar of the old stone railing at Bodhi Gaya” (D. H. I. P. 266). Dr. Bannerjea has given a very good representation of praty-ā liḍha pose of a figure appearing on some punch-marked coins among the Purneahoard—Śiva appearing on the Sirkap bronze seal of Śivarakṣita and some copper coins of Maues also approach this posture. Hindu goddess Tārā as per the descriptions of Tantrasāra of Āgamavāgīśa also assumes this pratyāliḍha attitude. Some Yakṣṇīs of Bharhut and Mathura railings are also depicted in this pose. A good many medieval and modern images of Kṛṣṇa in several of his līlāmūrtis are also shown in this pose.

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In the end a word need be said about poses technically called Ābhanga, Tribhanga and Atibhanga. A. N. Tagore (vide his ‘Some notes on Indian Artistic Anatomy’) has very brilliantly brought out the implication of these poses. “**Ābhanga** is that form of standing pose, in which the plumb line or the centre line, from the crown of the head to a point midway between the heels, passes slightly to the right of the naval”—Tagore. Its early representations are : Śiva on some Ujjayinī coins and those of Wema Kadphises as well as on a square copper coin of Maues and a few coins of Huvishka portray this picture. Similar are the examples like Umā, Skanda-Kumāra and Viśākha, on some coins of Huvishka, etc. These are some of the famous illustrations.

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The **tribhaṅga** pose has been described by Tagore as one in which ‘the centre line passes through the left (or right) pupil, the middle of the chest, the left (or right) of the navel, down to the heels. The lower limbs, from the hips to the feet, are displaced to the right (or left) of the figure, the trunk between the hips and neck, to the left (or right) while the head leans towards the right (or left).’ This pose is so called because the number of the bends in the figure is three and so the name is quite appropriate.

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Dr. Bannerjea observes; ‘The pose may not be as common as the other two, but it is also used in the iconographic art of ancient and medieval India, especially in the representations of goddesses and other attendants of principal deities. Ṛṣyaśrṅga on the Mathura railing—and the goddesses on certain copper coins of Azes, tentatively identified by me as Durgā....are undoubtedly depicted in the tribhanga pose.’

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Now remains **atibhaṅga**. It is really an emphasised form of tribhaṅaga, ‘the sweep of the tribhaṅga curve being considerably enhanced. The upper portion of the body above the limbs below are thrown to right or left, backwards or forwards, like a tree caught in a storm’. This type is comparatively rarely represented in Indian art and is used in the depiction of dynamic action of the divinity; several ugra (terrific) forms of Śiva and Śākta deities and various krodhadevatās of Vajrayāna Buddhism are usually depicted in this manner’—Bannerjea (D. H. I. P. 266).

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Something ought to have been said here of the Dancing Poses, intimately associated with Naṭarāja Śiva; but they are reserved for exposition ahead—Śaiva Icons—the Nṛtta-mūrtīs.

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Before closing the Chapter two more ‘mudrās’ may be only hinted at here. The first is the mode in which certain figures were depicted in the iconographic art of ancient and medieval India. It is the flying one and as it is intimately associated with Gandharvas and Vidyādharas, it woned be taken ahead—Pratimā-lakṣaṇa Pt. II—‘the Gandharvas’. As regards the second it is conventional representation of the clouds in the early and medieval art. It is also associated with these celetial figures—the gandharvas and vidyādharas, who make their aerial sojourn through the firmament and therefore its indication or representation has formed an important topic of the iconographer’s art. The V. D. has prescribed the canon (vide its discourse on the Painting—Book III) and it will be taken up in its proper place vide Pt. III—the Pictorial Art.

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MUDRĀS (*continued*)

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(Objects, Seats, Drapery & Decorations)

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This chapter is in continuation of the last chapter. While in the former we have dealt with the Mudrās in their subjective, *i. e.* mental and spiritual attitudes manifesting themselves in the bodily poses. Here in this chapter they are being treated from an objective point of view. To the various attitudes in which the hands of images are shown as many as three chapters have been devoted in the text and their notice has already been taken of, in the previous chapter. Similarly there are a good many other technical terms usually employed in the description of the images such as the postures and poses which the bodies of the images are made to assume, these too have been taken notice of, in the previous chapter (cf. the standing postures and poses of the body). But there is a multitude of terms which denote the costume, ornaments and headgear in which the images are represented together with the objects which images of gods are shown to bear in their hands, such as weapons, implements, musical instruments, animals, birds, etc. These need be taken notice of for the sake of completeness of the topic, though no separate chapter is devoted in the Samarāṅgaṇa-Sūtradhāra for their description. Aparājita-pracchā however has a unique distinction to devote some Sūtras to this side of iconographical treatment. Śilparatna and Mānasāra are also credited to have taken up this subject (P. L. p. 50-55).

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In the previous chapter I have maintained the thesis that Mudrās should not be taken only to denote the poses of the hands, body and the legs and feet alone, but they are also the symbolic representations of the characteristic emblems of the divinities. In this sense all the symbols characteristic of a particular deity can stand for mudrās. Mudrās as poses of the hands, etc. and current in literature are more intimately connected with the Buddhist images. The Brahmaniç images being full of their characteristic emblems, like dresses, ornaments, seats, and conveyances have not been shown with so many intricacies of the mudrās as they are generally understood, by the Indian artists.

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It may, however, be again remarked that as per the thesis of the writer taking mudrās in broader sense, it is obvious that in orthodox Hindu literature, the mudrās are symbolic reproductions of the characteristic emblems of the divinities and not, generally speaking, the peculiar positions of the hands and fingers or feet and body as those of Buddhist and Jain figures. ‘The reason why mudrās are less important in orthodox Hindu art may be explained by the presence of their substitutes in a great number of weapons and attributes held by Brahmanic deities.’

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This contention is borne out by the following quotation from Tantra-sāra :

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एकोनविंशतिर्मु द्राः विष्णोरुक्ता मनीषिभिः ।
शंखचक्रगदापद्म —— वेणुश्रीवत्सकौस्तुभाः ॥
… … … …शिवस्य दशमुद्रिकाः ।
लिंगयोनित्रिशूलाख्या मालेष्टाभीमृगाह्वयाः ॥
सूर्यस्यैकैव पद्माख्या सप्तमुद्रा गणेशितुः ।
लत्मीमुद्रार्च्चने लक्ष्म्या वाग्वादिन्याश्च पूजने ॥
अक्षमाला तथा वीणा व्याख्या-पुस्तकमूद्रिकाः ।
सप्तजिह्वाह्वया मुद्रा विज्ञेया वह्निपूजने ॥

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Thus nineteen mudrās are known to be of Viṣṇu—some of them are śaṅkha, cakra, gadā, padma, śrīvatsa, kaustubha, vanamālā etc. Śiva has ten mudrās sacred to him, *i. e.*, the liṅgam or the phyllic symbol, the trident, the rosary, ḍamaru, etc. Sūrya or the sun has one mudrā, namely the lotus. Gaṇeśa has seven mudras, some of which are the tusk, the goad, the axe, the rice-ball etc. The mudrās for Sarasvatī are the lute, the book and the rosary. Similarly the mudrā for Agni is seven flames—I. I. p. 46.

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The symbols or mudrās in the broad sense of the term (which I have introduced) are accessories to the main figure—the conductors, as it were, between the image and the idea. Thus the observation of the elephant in the image of Indra brings back the whole idea of Royalty of which an elephant used to be a fundamental emblem. The bull, in India, is a sombol of Dharma and was thus used as the vehicle of Śiva, the great yogī. Symbolism in India is the key note of its culture and philosophy.

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It is from this broad stand point that we have bestowed upon our gods and goddesses the following weapons and implements.

Cites (6)