Devi Annapurna Feeds Siva

While Durga is the fierce goddess of the battlefield, Annapurna represents the goddess of plenty. She is calm, fruitful and fertile. Unlike most goddesses, Annapurna carries no weapons. Her most famous shrine is in Banaras, the city sacred to Siva. In Bengal, there is a tradition of producing clay images of the goddess ladling out food to Siva, who is shown as a begging mendicant.

Annapurna (she who fills with food) is represented as a fair woman, sitting on a low-backed sttol. With her two hands she gracefully piurs rice into Shiva's begging bowl. Her pendant foot rests on a on a small footrest (chowki). Siva, his body smeared with ash, is begging for alms, with the horn hanging on his side and a tiger skin covering his body. His beautiful hair is tied in a high knot, from the apex of which springs out the sacred river Ganga. His third eye is prominently displayed and a serpent coils around his neck..