Iconography of Indian Art: Mudras, Avatars, Symbols

Iconography is the study of the images of gods and teachers and of the signs by which each is recognised. Indian sculptors did not carve freely: the posture, the number of arms, the objects held, the animal below and the mark on the pedestal were all fixed by texts, so an image can be named even when no inscription survives. The canons examiners name are the Shilpa Shastras, the Chitrasutra section of the Vishnudharmottara Purana, and the manuals called Manasara and Mayamata; the system of proportion they use, measuring a figure in units of its own face, is iconometry.

Mudras of the Buddha

A mudra is a hand gesture with a fixed meaning, and the Buddha's mudras record the moments of his life. Dhyana mudra shows both hands resting in the lap, one over the other, and stands for meditation. Bhumisparsha mudra, the earth-touching gesture, has the right hand pointing down to the ground: it is the moment of enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, when the Buddha called the earth to witness. Dharmachakra mudra joins thumb and forefinger of both hands in circles at chest level and stands for the first sermon at Sarnath, the turning of the wheel of law. Abhaya mudra raises the open right palm outward and means fearlessness and protection; Varada mudra lowers the open palm in giving a boon; Vitarka mudra marks teaching and discussion; and Anjali mudra, the folded palms, is greeting and reverence. The reclining figure on its right side is the Mahaparinirvana, the Buddha's death at Kushinagar.

Before images were carved, the Buddha was shown only by symbols, and these remain in the carvings of Sanchi and Bharhut: a lotus and an elephant for birth, a riderless horse for the great renunciation, the Bodhi tree for enlightenment, the wheel for the first sermon, the footprints for his presence and the stupa for the parinirvana. The Gandhara school worked in grey schist under Greek and Roman influence, Mathura in red sandstone and Amaravati in white marble-like limestone, and students should be able to name the stone with the school.

Vishnu, his attributes and avatars

Vishnu is identified by four objects: the conch called Panchajanya, the discus called Sudarshana, the mace called Kaumodaki and the lotus. He wears the kaustubha jewel and the vanamala garland, his mount is Garuda, and his consort is Lakshmi. The ten avatars in their usual order are Matsya the fish, Kurma the tortoise, Varaha the boar, Narasimha the man-lion, Vamana the dwarf, Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, the Buddha and Kalki, who is yet to come. The reclining form on the serpent Shesha is Anantashayana, best known in the Dashavatara temple at Deogarh.

Shiva, the Devi and the Jain Tirthankaras

Shiva carries the trident and the damaru drum, wears the crescent moon and the snake, holds the Ganga in his matted hair and has a third eye; his mount is the bull Nandi and his abstract form is the linga. His named forms are the ones exams ask about: Nataraja, the lord of the dance, performing the ananda tandava inside a ring of flames, carved most famously as Chola bronzes and worshipped at Chidambaram; Ardhanarishvara, half male and half female; Dakshinamurti, the teacher facing south; Lingodbhava, rising from the linga; and Bhairava, the terrible form. The Devi is Mahishasuramardini when she kills the buffalo demon, Gaja-Lakshmi when flanked by elephants, and Saraswati with the veena, the manuscript and the swan. Jain images are told apart by the lanchana, a small emblem on the pedestal: the bull of Rishabhanatha, the lion of Mahavira, the elephant of Ajitanatha and the conch of Neminatha, while Parshvanatha is known at once by the hood of a serpent over his head. The colossal Bahubali at Shravanabelagola is the best-known Jain monolith.

Symbols, gestures in dance and the bronze technique

Auspicious symbols run through Indian art: the lotus for purity and creation, the swastika for well-being, the srivatsa and the triratna, the purna kumbha or full vessel of plenty, the kalpavriksha or wish-giving tree, and the wheel for law and time. In classical dance the same word mudra means the hand gestures of the hasta vocabulary, and the Abhinaya Darpana lists twenty-eight single-hand gestures and twenty-four combined ones, while Bharata's Natya Shastra is the older authority on gesture, rasa and movement. Body postures also carry names: samabhanga for an upright figure, abhanga for a slight bend and tribhanga for the triple bend of the head, torso and hip seen in dancing figures. The Chola bronzes were cast by the lost-wax method, also called cire perdue, in which a wax model is covered in clay, melted out and replaced by molten metal, so each image is unique.