English
Harihara
In Harihara imagery, Shiva is represented as the right half of the deity, his vertical third eye, lightly incised into the forehead, truncated at the Vishnu divide. The facial features are undifferentiated, unlike in their Indian counterparts, where a masculine and feminine cast is given to each half. This Harihara makes clear the extent to which the Khmer conception differentiated the two deities only in the partition of the headdress into a combined jatamukuta-miter and in the provision of half of a third eye on Shiva’s side. The popularity of this hybrid deity was largely confined to the seventh century in Cambodia.
cat. no. 92
cat. no. 92
Artwork Details
- Title: Harihara
- Period: pre-Angkor period
- Date: late 7th–early 8th century
- Culture: Cambodia or Vietnam
- Medium: Sandstone
- Dimensions: H. 35 1/2 in. (90.2 cm); W. 13 3/8 in. (34 cm); D. 6 in. (15.2 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Purchase, Laurance S. Rockefeller Gift and Anonymous Gift, 1977
- Object Number: 1977.241
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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