description of Vishnu, which comes very near to what has been

depicted above- It says : " The god of gods sleeps on the serpent. One of his legs lies on the thigh of LakshmT, while the other is placed on the body of the serpent- He has two hands, one of which is stretched along the right thigh and the other is placed over his head- Brahma is comfortably seated on the lotus which springs from the navel of Vishnu. Entangled in the stem of the lotus stand the demons Madhu and Kaitabha. The symbols of the god, viz., the conch, discus, club and lotus are all represented about him, each assuming a body-" 1 A similar description is given by Hemadri under the JALASAYANA. term Jalasayana-

God Vishnu seated comfortably on the serpent couch is VAIKUNTHA- named Vaikuntha-Narayana ~ (fig. 33). The left leg is stretched down and the right is bent at the knee ; the left hand rests on the knee-joint, while the right hand rests carelessly thrown back on the head of the serpent ; the two back hands hold the weapons sankha and chakra. The image is decorated with jewels and by its side are his consorts LakshmT and Prithvl.

Lakshml-Narayana is another of Vishnu's seated forms where, to the left of the god, by his side or sometimes on his thigh, is found seated the image of Lakshml throwing her right hand round the neck of the god while she holds in her left a lotus- The left hand of Vishnu similarly passes round the waist of LakshmT. A female deity called Siddhi stands near, with a fly-whisk in her hand. The vehicle Garuda is on the right side at the foot of the god. The sankha and chakra not being held by the god are carried by two dwarf male figures standing in front of him ; Brahma and Siva also stand by, worshipping Vishnu with folded hands 3 (fig. 34).

1 Vasudeva described by Hemadri as a standing Vishnu figure of four arms, holds in the two upper hands the lotus and the conch and instead of having in the two lower, the weapons chakra (discus) and gad a yclub), he places the palms of these hands on the heads of two dwarf figures, one male and one female, holding chauris in their hands and looking at the face of the god These dwarf figures are stated to be the personified weapons chakra andgada; (see Afayvral>hanja t fig. 16, on plate facing p. xl). The descriptions given by the same author of Sankarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha other standing forms of Vishnu refer also to personified weapons.

2 See the Madras Epigraphical Report for 1906, p. 76. The Brahmtya- Silpa calls this same figure Adimurti and describes him as being attended by gods and rtshts in a worshipping attitude.

3 Hemadri. According to the StlpasangraAa, Lakshmi-Narayana has four arms in which he displays the conch and the discus and the protecting and the boon-giving postures. Mr. Rea portrays a fine picture of Lakshmi-Narayana from Nilagunda (Bellary district) on Plate LIU of his Chahtkyan Architecture,