discus and the club and in the fourth exhibits the threatening
finger-pose called tarjam. He is seated with his right leg hanging down from the pedestal and the left bent crosswise and placed on the same [fig. 160 (c), below].
Vishnu's vehicle Garuda is installed in every Vaishnavite temple right opposite to the central shrine and is a standing human figure of stone or mortar, with a beak-shaped nose and with spreading wings proceeding from his back on either side. He has his two arms folded over the breast in a worshipping posture (fig. 42). 1 When made into a processional image of metal, Garuda is represented as kneeling on the left knee, the right foot being firmly placed on the ground and a serpent decorating his head. 2
XII
HANUMAN. Hanuman, the monkey-god, has been already referred to as a great devotee of Vishnu intimately connected with the incarnation Rama-avatar. In Southern India he is very popular, even insignificant villages containing a shrine for Hanuman. He is represented in two postures. 3 When included in the group of Rama, Lakshmana and Slta, he stands at a distance on one side, or opposite to them, in a humble and devotional attitude, with the two hands folded together, the tail hanging down close to his feet. 4 In shrines exclusively
1 According to the Silparatna, Garuda figures may also be shown with the two hands pointing the abhaya and the varada postures. Occasionally, Garuda may be made to carry in his right hand a pot of nectar. This is evidently a reference to the story that Garuda while young carried away from Indra the pot of nectar, in order to fulfil his mother's promise to Kadru, the mother of serpents.
2 The Silpasangraha describes a form of Garuda who has fierce protruding teeth and eight arms in six of which he has the conch, discus, club, lotus and the nectar-pot while the others are stretched out to receive the feet of the Lord (Vishnu). It is further stated that the eight lords of serpents are worn as jewels by him, thus showing that Garuda had completely subdued the Nagas. Garuda when represented with four arms is called Vainateya. It may be noted that the bird Garuda is of Vedic fame, his body being supposed to be completely made up of the Vedas. A Vedic sacrifice called Garuda-chayana is performed by offering oblations to the gods on a platform built in the shape of Garuda. Vishnu is sometimes known as Yajna-purusha the personified god of sacrifice.
3 The Silparalna mentions a third posture in which Ilanuman is described as a yogiti, teaching philosophy to a number of pupils who surround him.
- See above, fig. 23. Here, at the right end of the picture Hanuman is seen in
a submissive attitude while another figure of his at the left end, carries in both hands two Sia.-Iingas which Rama had ordered him to bring for establishing al Ramesvaram, on his way back from Lanka. Visvakarma, Part VI, Plate 100, also gives a metallic figure of Hanuman from Ceylon, with his hands stretched out, indicating evidently a mixed feeling of wonder and despair.