Considerable innovations in religious iconography were developed during the Mon-Dvaravati period. For example, many Buddhas hold both of their hands in a gesture of exposition or teaching (vitarkamudra) that in India is confined to the right hand. Images from the related site of Prakhon Chai also exhibit this double hand gesture, but otherwise it is unknown in the Buddhist world. Another iconographic innovation was to place a standing Buddha and flanking attendants on the back of Garuda, a semi-divine winged creaturethat usually appears as the vehicle (vahana) of Vishnu.
