Art & Culture Quiz: Iconography: Mudras, Avatars and Symbols in Indian Art

In the Bhumisparsha, or earth-touching, mudra the Buddha sits with the left hand in his lap and the right hand lowered with the fingers pointing to the ground, calling the earth to witness that he had earned the right to enlightenment against the temptations of Mara.

The gesture joins the thumb and forefinger of each hand into a circle, the wheel, and holds them before the chest, marking the turning of the wheel of law in the deer park at Sarnath, where the Buddha preached to his first five disciples.

Vishnu is recognised by four attributes, and each has its own name: the conch Panchajanya, the discus Sudarshana, the mace Kaumodaki and the lotus.

The correct answer is B, Varaha, the boar, third in the usual sequence of ten avatars, carved either fully as a boar or with a boar's head on a human body, often lifting the earth goddess on one tusk.

The Nataraja shows Shiva within a ring of flames, hair flying, the damaru drum in one hand and fire in another, the right foot pressing down the dwarf of ignorance called Apasmara and one hand raised in the gesture of protection; the form is linked with Chidambaram and is the…

The correct answer is C, Parshvanatha, the twenty-third Tirthankara, who is shown with the hood of a serpent, usually of seven heads, spread over his head and the coils rising behind him; his lanchana, the emblem on the pedestal, is a snake.

Saraswati is shown with the veena, a manuscript or palm-leaf book, a rosary and the swan, the bird also given to Brahma, whose consort she is in the later tradition.

The sculptor first models the figure in wax, coats it in fine clay to form a mould, and heats the mould so that the wax melts and runs out; molten metal is poured into the empty space, and the mould is broken to free the image, so each bronze is…

The reclining image, lying on the right side with the head resting on the hand and the eyes half closed, shows the Buddha's final passing away, and the colossal figures at Kushinagar and Ajanta are the examples usually cited.

Its Chitrasutra section sets out the rules of painting and image making, including proportion, posture, the limbs of painting and the measurement system called iconometry, and it is grouped with the Shilpa Shastras and the manuals Manasara and Mayamata as the canonical guides for artists.

Mahishasuramardini means the slayer of the buffalo demon Mahishasura, and the form shows the many-armed goddess, each hand holding a weapon given by a god, driving her trident into the demon as he emerges from the buffalo's body, with the lion at her side.

The word means three bends, and the posture shifts the head one way, the torso another and the hip a third, giving the figure the swaying grace seen in dancing images and in classical Odissi.