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Why do Hindu Deities have so many Arms?
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The short answer is that they have a lot on their hands.
But of course it is much more complicated than that.
You have to go right back in history to understand the precision and meaning of it. Image worship crept almost imperceptibly into Indian religions, and was finally sanctioned in the religious scriptures only when certain images were themselves officially recognised as part of Hinduism. The rituals for their worship were then described in much detail. |
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One of the results of this process, more especially the merging of two
or more deities, was that some of the gods were shown as having several
qualities. The visual problem that this created for the sculptor or
artist when he made images of the gods was solved by showing them with
several arms.
Each hand would hold some object which would symbolize or represent the
various qualities of that particular deity. Some of the hands would be
empty but the position of the fingers and the palms would signify the
character of that god. For example, if the fingers are pointing towards
the ground, it means that the god is of a charitable disposition
whereas the fingers pointing upwards, as in a blessing, signify a
protector (see illustration). These gestures (mudras) symbolized their
individual powers and differentiated them from other deities.
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