Purusha Sukta has the 1000 headed , 1000 eyed, thousand legged Purusha description.

Bhashyas for example Saayana Bhashya to Veda mantras etc. is an example of traditional premodern literature where 'explanations' for such features can be looked for.

In fact, certain Brahmanas themselves provide such explanations with the explanatory principle परोक्ष प्रिया वै इव हि देवाः Devtas love to be described indirectly being mentioned at various such explaining occasions.

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There is a popular phrase नाम गुण रूप लीला संकीर्तन used while talking about what in Bhakti leads to the spiritual benefits to Bhakta.

Many doctrinal works take the position that ultimately नाम रूप लीला संकीर्तन end up being गुण संकीर्तन only.and it is the repeated meditation on the kalyaana gunas that leads to the punya, chittashuddhi and other spiritual benefits accruing in the meditating mind.

The reasoning in the above includes the reasoning that रूप is an expression of गुण.

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Sthapatis even today are trained to give rupa to gunas.

Even when they are commissioned to create a sculpture of a real human person , generally contemporary to the time of creation or described from the memory of the commissioning person, Sthapatis tell me that they are asked not to create a photo real replica of the actual person but to collect the gunas of the person , meditate on them and give a visual form to the gunas as per the stylizational artistic aesthetics combined with shilpa shaastra principles of metrics.

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It may be important to remember that the feature of more hands, heads, eyes etc., than in normal natural beings is found in the Raakshasa and other non Devata characters and figures also.

On Sat, May 18, 2024 at 3:05 AM Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

This feature is mentioned in brahmāṇḍa-purāṇa 3.43.70. (From GRETIL which is a transcription of the Bombay edition of Venkatesa Press)

brahmāṇḍa-purāṇa 3.43.70

atrinetraḥ śivaḥ sākṣād acaturbāhuracyutaḥ /

acaturvadano brahmā śrīguruḥ parikīrtitaḥ //
"Shri Guru is said to indeed be Shiva without three eyes, Vishnu without four arms and Brahma without four faces".

Harry Spier
On Fri, May 17, 2024 at 8:04 AM Rolf Heinrich Koch via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
One theory resulting from my fieldwork: Remodeling.

According to a Sinhalese mansucript, a handbook for artists in non-standard Sanskrit ślokas, I read e.g. Viṣṇu has to be modelled with two hands for his two attributes. The artist used the existing sculpture depicting an earlier two armed god. He added two arms for the Viṣṇu-Attributes. Now we got Viṣṇu with four arms.
Later, new Viṣṇu-scuptures are modeled with four arms.

Best

Heiner

Am 17.05.2024 um 13:20 schrieb François Voegeli via INDOLOGY:
Dear Members of the List,

A friend recently asked me a rather disconcerting question (for me at least): why do Indian gods have so many arms?

My understanding was that these arms bear attributes of the god (trident, discus, severed head, etc.) to remind the devout of some parts of the god's gest, but I have not seen such explanation in Indian litterature.
What is the Indian literature exactly saying about this quite remarkable feature and where (Purāṇas, Śilpaśāstras, or elsewhere)?

Your input will be very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

François Voegeli
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