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Thumb and forefinger touching to form a circle, other fingers extended.
Also known as: Teaching gesture, Gesture of discussion, Vyakhyana mudra
Vitarka mudra is the gesture of teaching or discussion: the tips of the thumb and forefinger meet to form a circle while the remaining fingers extend upward, the hand usually raised with the palm outward. The closed circle is read as an unbroken flow of argument. It is very frequently mistaken by Western viewers for the 'OK' hand sign, which is an unrelated modern gesture with quite different — and in some places offensive — readings.
Is routinely mistaken for the modern 'OK' hand sign, which is an unrelated gesture whose readings range from approval to obscenity depending on the country. The resemblance is coincidental and the two belong to different visual traditions entirely.
Contexts: Religion
A raised hand with the thumb and first finger curled to touch at the tips, forming a small ring, while the three remaining fingers stand straight up.
Both are hand gestures in the same iconographic vocabulary.