How many arms does the average Hindu have?

[Exy]

Because I would estimate that it is less than half the number the average Hindu God has.

Does anyone here know anything about Indian religion? I always found the trope of multi-armed depictions of all their various Gods interesting, but I don't really know what it means. Does anyone know how old this idea is? Or know of any theories of what it means? Are related religions into this? Does Buddhism ever sculpt Buddhas with supernumerary arms? Are Jains into this stuff?

Is it associated with some direct symbolism, like "Shakti's four arms represent the four ____s" or "Arm one represents ____, Arm 2 represents ____ . . . " or anything like that?

[The Original An Gadaí]

Exy, this is a fascinating thread topic and I apologise for being a veritable lacuna with regard to same. Kthx.

[Inner Stickler]

I think Hatshepsut might know some of this stuff.

[Orual]

I've never seen a Buddha with more than 2 arms. I have seen bodhisattvas (Kuan-yin, I think) with the multi-face, many arm thing going on.

ETA: I'm right! And it has nothing to do with the actual question!

[terrifel]

The way it was explained to me, the many arms visually symbolize the divine power of the god-- basically that they are able to do a lot. This neatly dovetails with the Hindu symbology of ritual hand gestures; obviously a god with a lot of divine attributes is going to need a lot of hands to show them off. So the many hands are typically either posed in significant ritual gestures, or else holding various symbolic paraphernalia.

This question wouldn't happen to have been prompted by a recent Time magazine feature by any chance would it?

[ivan astikov]

Does anyone think they'd have depicted their deities with 8 arms, had they ever seen an octopus? I'm guessing the practice began way before they'd had such an encounter.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

I've got no direct answer to the question, but I've read some Indian myths and legends, and it's noticeable that everything is on a big scale -- if one god wants to get another god's attention, he'll stand on his head for 10,000 years, and so on. I have a feeling that in the vitality of the mythology, a lot of arms just fit naturally.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

And here's an attempt at a serious answer.

[Exy]

I've never seen a Buddha with more than 2 arms. I have seen bodhisattvas (Kuan-yin, I think) with the multi-face, many arm thing going on.

ETA: I'm right! And it has nothing to do with the actual question!

Actually I appreciate the answer because I thought I had seen more Chinese-looking sculptures with multiple arms and I was wondering about that. (I actually was going to ask about bodhisattvas in my post but then I wasn't sure if Buddhists went around sculpting them.)

This question wouldn't happen to have been prompted by a recent Time magazine feature by any chance would it?

No, I haven't read anything in Time recently.

[Orual]

Actually I appreciate the answer because I thought I had seen more Chinese-looking sculptures with multiple arms and I was wondering about that. (I actually was going to ask about bodhisattvas in my post but then I wasn't sure if Buddhists went around sculpting them.)

In my vast scholarly experience (i.e. spending a lot of time in the Asian wing of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, and a couple of tours of the Asian Art Museum out here), Buddhists sculpt different kinds of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and various related demons and gods who also happen to be Buddhist.

[Capybara]

If he looks like a monk, with a simple robe, it's the Buddha/Gautama/Sakyamuni. If he's dressed up like a prince (crown, jewelry, hotpants, etc) it's a boddhisattva. Guan Yin/Kannon/Avalokitesvara is a very popular boddhisattva and sometimes (not always) has many, many, many arms, as he/she (sort of switches gender in China) hears the cries of the kabillions in distress and can do something about it. Sometimes to the nth power, as at the Sanjusangendo in Kyoto, which has one-thousand 1000 (roughtly )-armed Kannon figures. http://www.susanosborn.com/images/sanjusangendo.jpg

[Trojan Man]

I know 2 Hindus, and they each have 2 arms. So if you base statistical averages on that, the answer might be 2.