Of all the male Hindu deities
Visnu was most popular in Bengal. The four arms of the
deity are not raised above, the back right and the left
arms are lowered and the hands hold a mace (gada) and
a disk (chakra) respectively, the upper right hand holds
a fruit (matulunga or bijapura), and the upper left hand
a conch (shankha), the spiral of which is always shown
upwards in Bengal. Garuda, the vehicle of Visnu, does
not appear at this early stage.
Picture-1: a Visnu deity found
in Baghaura village of Vikrampur
Picture-2: a Visnu deity found in
Churain village of Vikrampur.
