Indian iconography is a very ancient science and art. There are clear references to images in the in the Rgveda and to temples in the Atharvaveda. Subsequent ancient works contain innumerable references to the same.

Broadly speaking, the images in the Hindu temples fall into three groups: Saiva, Sakta and Vaisnava, respectively belonging to the three cults of Siva, Sakti and Visnu. The images, again, can be acala or dhruvabera (immovable) or cala (movable). The former are usually made of stone and are permanently fixed. The latter are usually made of metals like bronze or pancaloha (alloy of five metals) and are used for taking out in procession of festive occassions, for bathing, for ritualistic worship etc. Sometimes, a third category, calcala (both movable and immovable) is added. When the same image that is kept and worshipped in the garbhagrha is also taken out on the ratha (temple car)-as for instance in the case of the temple of Lord Jagannatha at Puri (Orissa) – it is called calacala.

Again, the images can be in three postures: sthanaka (standing), asana (sitting) and sayana (lying down). Only images of Visnu are to be seen in the sayana posture also.

The particular aspect of the deities represented by the images can be recognised by seeing the mudra (position of the hands and fingers), asana (posture of legs and feet), cinha (symbol), vasana (dress) and abharana (ornaments). Among the mudras and asanas, (granting boons), padmasana (lotus posture) and yogasana (meditation posture) are most common. Saiva and Sakta images have damaru (drum), trisula (trident), pasa (noose), ankusa (goad), bana (arrow), khadga (sword) and so on, as their symbols. Cakra (discus), sankha (conch), gada (mace), and padma (lotus) are more common for Vaisnava images. As regards dress and ornaments, they are too numerous to mention.

There are elaborate rules guiding the sclupturing of images. The height or length, width, girth as also the proportions of the various limbs-each one of these is fixed according to the tala mana system. A ‘tala’ is the measurement of the palm of hand (from the tip of the middle finger to the wrist) and is equal to the length of the face. The navatala system wherein the total length or height of the image is nine times (nava=nine) the length of the face, is recommended for the images of gods.