The
Pancharatra text
Jayakhya-Samhita mentions that Vaikuntha Chaturmurti has four faces: Vaikuntha, Narasimha, Varaha and Kapila and four arms holding the usual attributes of Vishnu:
shankha (conch),
chakra,
gada (
mace) and
padma (lotus). In one of earliest Vaikuntha Chaturmurti images dating from the Gupta era – c. 6th century (now housed in Mathura Museum), the positions of the boar and lion heads are reversed, though this is a rare aberration. The central front face may be smiling. The
kapila head may have a moustache, bulging large eyes, a
third eye, grinning teeth, fangs, a short chin, broad eyebrows and a ferocious, grim or sad expression. His hair are generally tied up in a large knot – a
jata (matted hair) like a sage; rarely he may wear a crown. The name of the fourth head as Kapila is interpreted in two ways. Taking the literal meaning of
kapila as red, it is interpreted as meaning fierce or angry. The epithet
kapila is associated with the fire god
Agni and the solar deity
Surya in early canonical texts. Another theory relates to Vishnu's sage avatar and founder of
Samkhya philosophy,
Kapila, who is described as having a wrathful nature and cursing the sons of
Sagara to turn into ashes for insulting him. The head-dress
jatajuta is typical of
Brahmin sages like Kapila. The
Agni Purana also describes the icon having four heads, without describing the nature of each. The iconographical treatises
Aparajitapriccha and the
Rupamandana mention that the fourth head is
Shri (
Lakshmi – the wife of Vishnu) and
Stri (female) respectively, however no sculptures with a fourth female head have been discovered. '')
Garuda, 11th century Kashmir Vaikuntha Chaturmurti is generally depicted standing. He wears rich clothes (generally in sculpture, only a
dhoti However, in sculpture, he is often
four-armed and in two of his hands, he holds a lotus and a conch, while his other hands rest on the heads of his personified weapons (
ayudhapurusha) – Gadadevi or Gadanari (gada as a female) on his right and Chakrapurusha on his left, who stand as small figures besides his legs. They both look upwards towards him and hold fly whisks. A tiny figurine of the earth goddess
Prithvi (who associated with Varaha and Vishnu as his consort) rises from the pedestal in between his feet, as though supporting the deity. A short dagger or sword may be tucked up in the waist belt of the god near the right hip, a peculiar feature of Kashmir icons. Attendants or devotees may be also shown besides or below Vishnu. Sometimes, Brahma and Shiva and the
ten avatars of Vishnu may be depicted in the background. The
Jayakhya-Samhita mentions that four goddesses Lakshmi, Kirti, Jaya and Maya as the female counterparts of Vaikuntha Chaturmurti. Rarely, Vaikuntha Chaturmurti is accompanied with his consort Lakshmi, who sits on his left thigh. This form is called
Lakshmi Vaikuntha in the
Jayakhya-Samhita. In rare instances, true to the textual descriptions, Vaikuntha Chaturmurti is depicted as eight-armed. Examples of these exist in
Kandariya Mahadeva Temple, Khajuraho; Siddhanatha Mahadeva Temple, Sandera,
Gujarat and
Jhalawar Museum. There are some sculptures that synthesize Vaikuntha form with other forms of Vishnu. An 1170 CE sculpture at Chamba depicts Seshasayi Vishnu (Vishnu reclining on the serpent
Shesha) with the three heads of Vaikuntha form. Another sculpture in
Markula Devi Temple,
Udaipur combines
Trivikrama (another avatar of Vishnu) with Vaikuntha's three heads. ==Development and symbolism==