Child Saint Sambandar

Sambandar, a seventh-century child saint, is among the most popular of the Hindu saints of South India. Legend recounts that after receiving a gift of milk (represented by the bowl) from the goddess Uma, Sambandar devoted his life to composing hymns in praise of Lord Shiva. Here, his raised hand points to Shiva’s heavenly abode at Mount Kailash, in the Himalayas. Sambandar is one the three principal saints of South India, the muvar (revered three), who were the focus of the vast corpus of devotional hymns written in the seventh to ninth century. The sculptor masterfully captured the childlike quality of the saint while empowering him with the maturity and authority of a spiritual leader