moon (ardha-chandra) and kartari-hasta, which seems to be an attempt to represent the Indian katār or dagger hidden by the arm.[1] But it is quite possible that this pose, in which the index and little fingers are kept straight and the two middle ones lowered represents a deer as dancing-girls in Southern India still so represent that animal, curving the two upright fingers slightly backwards to indicate its horns.[2]
The diagrams given by Mr. Gangoly appear to represent the fingers in motion as well as in repose. Thus the Sinha-karna hasta seems to represent the index finger closing in on the thumb (Diagrams S), but in X it is the middle-finger which is so moving down. Similarly, the Kataka-hasta, from which Mr. Gangoly derives the Sinha-karna, appears to be always in quick movement. In fact, he speaks of the mudras as "actions of the finger." On the other hand all the open hands are apparently in repose, as in Diagrams D (Araya-hasta), and O (Arayamudra—Patāka-hasta). As when "all the fingers [are] spread out together, the thumb being curled up, it is known as patāka," there are doubtless other varieties of the Abhaya mudra, or re-assuring gesture, each with its shade of meaning. In the Abhaya the fingers are spread out: indeed, as a rule they are held close together but not all pressed together.[3] The open palm used to express contempt has, probably, the fingers radiating from it and bent slightly backwards. The hand held out horizontally with the palm upwards and the fingers in disarray, as it were, signifies resignation or despair—a gesture which has survived in modern Europe.[4]
- ↑ Ibid. p. 44. Mr. Gangoly does not translate the term, but says it is identical with the Kartari-mutha. His diagram M is queried as a Kartari-hasta, but it strongly suggests the side pieces of the katār.
- ↑ The Arts and Crafis of India and Ceylon, Ananda Coomaraswamy, 1913, pl. 9, p. 51.
- ↑ See, for instance, pl. 5 at p. 31 of Coomaraswamy, op. cit. In plates 3 and 4 he figures two distinct forms of the vitarka inudra, which are. I believe, still commonly used in India, though their precise significances are not known to me.
- ↑ See "With the Five Fingers," by Samarendranath Gupta, in Modern Review, Calcutta, 1913, vii. p. 169.
