Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c74.s8.40

v2.c74.s8.40

**Chest-ornaments.**—like Śrīvatsa, etc. are already explained (vide costumes). ‘Here a word on canna-vīra is called for, ‘Channavīra’, according to Rao, is a kind of flat ornament, a kind of jewelled disc, meant to be tied on the makuṭa or hung round the neck by string, so as to lie over the chest’. But Rao is not quite sure about his explanation; the ornament is mentioned very often in the iconographic texts. ‘An ornament made of two chin-like objects worn crosswise on the torso, one in the upavītī and the other in the prācīnavītī fashion (the latter is just the reverse of upavītī) with a flat disc, may illustrate Channavīra; this is sometimes found on some late South Indian sculptures of Viṣṇu or his incarnatory forms (cf. Rao, op. cit. Vol. I. pl. LV. Figs. of Rāma and Lakṣamaṇa) and other images’—Bannerjee. Dr. Bannerjea has found the representation of this ornament in the Taxila museum (torso is decorated with it). Besnagar Yakṣiṇī and Culakokā devatā in Bharhut pillar also seem to be decorated in this ornament.