Lord Shiva as Pashupatinath, The Cosmic Patriarch

The majestic roopa (form) of Lord Pashupatinath, sculpted from fine-quality wood. He is seated on His devoted Nandi, His bull-roopi vahana (mount), as stately and handsome as the Lord Himself. The lifelike musculature of the Lord - the torso, the arms, and the legs - is superimposed with the traditional gold and pearl adornments of South Indian iconography. The same goes for His wife, the lovely Devi Parvati, who is seated on the thigh of the folded leg.

Lord Pashupatinath is seated in lalitasana on a piece of silken fabric on the back of Nandi. The animal is richly adorned, all the way from the horns through the neck to the hooves, which befits its status as Shiva-vahana. A sharply sculpted, taurine face is turned to the viewer with a gaze full of unshakeable bhakti (unconditional love, for Lord Shiva in any of His roopas). On its head rests one of the chaturbhujadhari (four-armed) Lord’s posterior arms and in the other is the image of a pashu (animal) subject.

The most striking aspects of this composition are the ones that establish it in the style of South Indian temple architecture. A wide pedestal embossed with elongated lotus petals, with a floral chakra at the centre. A characteristically layered aureole. The imposing kirtiumkham at its zenith, signifying the predominance of kala or cyclical time. Note the miniscule lingam emerging from the surface of the pedestal into the belly of Nandi.