Should a deity have two arms or more?

The earliest Hindu iconography showing a four-armed Vishnu has been found in Malhar in Madhya Pradesh, dating to 100 BCE

In Kushan coins, minted over 1,800 years ago, we come across images of a woman holding the horn of plenty. She is identified with the Roman Goddess Fortuna, the Greek goddess Tyche, the Central Asian Ardochsho, the Buddhist Hariti, and the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. Images of Lakshmi are also found on pillars and medallions of early Buddhist stupas. She is visualised there as a bejewelled woman, standing in a pond of lotus flowers, surrounded by elephants, very similar to Lakshmi images found in Hindu homes today. But there is one crucial difference. Lakshmi images today show her as four-armed, not two-armed.

The transformation of two-armed Lakshmi into four-armed Lakshmi happened in the Gupta period, 1,700 years ago, when the old Vedic way reinforced its power by redefining itself through the Puranas, and pushed back on Buddhist popularity. The shift began in the earlier Kushan period. The rise of four-armed deities effectively marks a turning point in assertive Hindu art.