Editor's Picks

This striking Shiva sculpture is indeed the very picture of asceticism. This portrayal depicts Him walking across the Himalayas, a section of the jagged folded rocks beneath His kharam-clad feet. The same is true in a dynamic stance, the veins and the musculature of the limbs so lifelike it feels like the lord Himself has emerged within one's view. A leopard's skin functions as His loincloth, one that He had encountered and killed in the mountains (its lifeless head dangles against His thigh). Against it hangs a roughly fashioned bugle, which together with the damru is used by the deity to summon the Shivagana, His band of devotees. His austere shringar comprises ample rudrakshas that clasp His wrists and arms and cascade against His torso, together with the janeu tucked loosely into the loincloth.