The Ardhanarishvara of the Hindu pantheon is incomparable to any other culture in the world. The name is a portmanteau of the words ‘ardha-nari’, which means half-feminine, and ‘ishvara’, which is, in terms of Indian (sankhya and yoga) philosophy, the equivalent of the supreme deity in religion. As such, Ardhanarishvara is the confluence of the masculine and the feminine, an androgynous super-harmony in a culture that worships the union of the two as the precursor to life as we know it.
The forms of Lord Shiva and Devi Parvati fuse together to form the Ardhanarishvara. To the right is the Nataraja roopa (form) of the Lord. His dreadlocks are flying in the wind from the momentum of His tandava and snakes raise their hoods from within those or as they wind themselves around His limbs. The left side is formed of the gorgeous Parvati. The torso is fuller and the long limbs, graciously clothed. She is in the throes of the serene lasya, the contrast as well as complement to His annihilative tandava. Note the aesthetic difference in either half of the prabhavali (aureole). On the Nataraja’s side is a ringlet of flames, symbolic of destruction, while on the Mother’s side a luscious sprig of vine and fruit, symbolic of fertility. Zoom in on the head, which has been carved with the same differentiation in detail both in the back and in the front.
From the features of the face to the lifelike stance of the digits, such a superbly executed murti is fit to be housed in the finest of modern temples.
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