Q1.
Can you identify some of Durga’s many weapons? And her vāhana?
Answer
Her vāhana is the lion, and it is the easiest thing to find in the panel — the maned head, the round eye and the carefully carved curls of the mane are right at the centre of the left half, striding forward under her.
The weapons. Durga is carved with eight arms spread out like the spokes of a wheel, each holding something. The granite is worn, so read them by shape rather than by detail:
- The bow (dhanuṣ) — the long curved shaft slanting across her body, the clearest weapon in the panel.
- The arrow (bāṇa) — a straight shaft in the hand beside the bow-hand.
- The sword (khaḍga) — a straight blade held out in an upper arm.
- The shield — the round disc-like shape near a lower hand.
- Disc and conch (chakra and śhankha) — the two rounded objects held high in the raised hands.
- A bell and a noose or club in the remaining hands, worn almost smooth.
Why eight arms: the sculptor is not drawing a woman with eight arms; he is drawing power that acts in every direction at once. Each arm points a different way, so the figure fills a circle of space while the body itself stays calm and upright. It is a way of saying “she can meet any attack from any side” in stone.
Check it yourself: the panel is worn granite and lit from one side in the photograph, so some objects are genuinely hard to name. Look at Fig. 3.18 in your own book, count the arms first, then work outwards from the two you are sure of — the bow and the lion.