According to Tantra, the ultimate truth is the union of Shiva and Shakti. Shiva represents pure consciousness which is inactive (the static energy), while Shakti represents the world force, the kinetic energy of the concrete universe. This notion of the male being identified with the inert, the passive, is brought out in the theme of Shiva being the goddess' mattress or her foot stool. The feminine principle of Shakti, personified as the Goddess Devi is the supreme principle of the universe, which includes both the spiritual and the material.

Depicted as one of the ten Mahavidyas (Great knowledge goddesses), the Devi is shown here as Tara, the second Mahavidya. The Mahavidyas are Tantric deities who represent the ten paths to transcendental knowledge. Various texts describe Tara as standing or seated upon either a corpse or the recumbent Shiva. In this image, Shiva identifiable by his third eye, lies calm and untroubled. Scattered skulls and jackals evoke the cremation ground with which Tara is associated. Cremation grounds are liminal spaces; bridges between the world of spirits and the world of the living. As such they are powerful locations in which deities and spirits can most directly transfer energies and powers to devotees.

In this superb image that combines delicacy and boldness, the graceful contours of the figures and the tender expressions of the deities are characteristic of the Guler style in the mid 18th century. Rich harmony of saturated colors evoke the powerful intensity of a vision of the goddess, that was, no doubt, painted as an aid to meditation.

This description by Renu Rana.

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