Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Shiva as an Ascetic
Not on view
This lifesize sculpture of an ascetic probably represents Shiva. The figure is dressed in the manner of a rishi in a short loincloth, has long dreadlocks, and displays a vertical third eye on the forehead—features consistent with this identification. He holds an ascetic’s water bottle (kundika), a feature of anthropomorphic representations of Shiva from the early Gupta period in northern India. A cult icon of Shiva of this type is without precedent in Cambodia. The merging of Shaiva imagery with that of the Pashupata ascetic may account for this unique creation and be a clue to the identity of the patron who commissioned it.
cat. no. 96
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