Nabagunjara

[Gerard Huet]

On several occasions I have seen in India, both in temple paintings and
in traditional crafts, representations of a chimera mixing 9 animals:
peacock, bull, horse, lion, snake, elephant, ...
with a human hand holding Vi.s.nu's cakra. It is usually called
"Nabagunjara", and is supposed to represent K.r.s.na showing his power
to Arjuna during "Khandava Dahan". I am interested in learning
the textual origin of this mythology. It could of course be an artistic
rendition of K.r.s.na's theophany in the GItA, but I suspect that there is
a more precise textual origin. I am also at a loss at interpreting the
term nabagunjara: Naba is probably a corruption of nava, but I could not
find anything closely resembling gu~njara in Monier-Williams. 
I am also interested in secondary sources describing this symbol.

Since this is probably not of general interest, I suggest that you send me
your comments by email, I shall summarize here informative answers.

Gerard Huet