Bhanga means a bend, fold, flexion and undulation. In Hindu plastic art, the term and its derivatives are used in the technical sense of the body-flexions. Svabhanga implies a balanced stance without a bend, abhanga is a slight bend of the body in any direction, dvibhanga (double flexion) is triple or excessive bend. The bend is reckoned from the center of the body, i.e., a vertical line running through the center of the forehead, tip of the nose, navel, medhra (organ) and passign between the legs and the feet. The human figure has roughly three main parts, the head, the torso and the legs, which can be bent, if needed. The painter and the sculptor are trained to bend any of the parts (of a painting or a sculpture) in a given direction according to a desired scheme. The total height and the proportionate ratio of the anatomical parts of all gods, demigods and humans are prescribed in terms of tala-mana (a specific system of measurement), which varies between ten (120 angulas) and two talas (24 angulas) in accordance with the differing status, gender and age of the subject.
Measurement of the images together with the proportions of their
various limbs have been laid down in Brihat Samhita (259. 1-2) (6th
century CE), Matsya Purana (258, 26-29), Vaikhanasagama, Karanagama and the
Silparatna (14th century CE), etc.
The mulaberas (main images) enshrined in the sanctum, like
the figures of yakshas, Buddha and gods like Brahma, Vishnu, Vamana and Surya
are normally shown standing in samabhanga (contrapposto). Some stone and bronze
figures of Buddha from 5th century CE onwards are represented in
abhanga with one foot slightly advanced and the weight of the body supported on
the other foot. Most of the lilamurtis of Shiva and some of the incarnatory
forms of Vishnu, like Nrivaraha, the three Ramas and Krishna, normally adopt
dvibhanga and sometimes even tribhanga. Such are the flexion of Dasharathi Rama
at the early site of Deogarh (500 CE) and of Krishna (7th-8th
century CE).
Stone and bronze figures of Bodhisattvas are usually represented
in dvibhanga but they are often shown in tribhanga after the 11th century
CE. The acolytes are generally represented in dvibhanga. Salabhanjika has, from
the very beginning (2nd century BCE), been depicted in tribhanga, a
pose shared by Mayadevi in Buddha’s nativity scene, and also the
river-goddesses Ganga and Yamuna on the temple doorways. For the Venugopala
form of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, tribhanga pose is essential.
The deities which stand in alidha or prayalidha poses like Nirvaraha
and Mahishasuramardini, and some Vajrayana divinities, are also shown in
tribhanga.
Some regional schools of art have their own conventions. In
the Candella art of Khajuraho, only the mulaberas, the Jinas and a few deities
are depicted in samabhanga, while a vast majority of the deities, including
Vishnu, Shiva, the Dikpalas, Ashta Vasus, the Navagrahas and the Saptamatrikas
are generally shown in dvibhanga and occasionally also in tribhanga.