Goddess Bhairavi
Not on view
The goddess Bhairavi is one of the Mahavidya, the ten manifestations of Devi, the supreme goddess of Hinduism, as well as embodying the female aspect of Bhairava, a wrathful form of Shiva. Shiva’s crescent moon appears on her forehead framing a third eye and in recognition of her specifically Bhairava affiliation, she wears a long garland of severed humans heads whose faces display a range of benign expressions. The goddess is enthroned on a low throne with cusped back that supports an honorific parasol. All is set on a terrace with a colonnade backdrop with acanthus-leaf capitals and inlaid or painted décor and heavy gold-fringed drapes in the manner of the day. In all respects Bhairavi is presented with the accoutrements of a ruler. Her divine authority is further emphasized by her sitting with one leg drawn up and resting on the knee, a posture of royal ease reserved for those of the highest rank. The throne and terrace setting are contemporary with the making of this image and representative of Bengali interior design which adapted numerous European architectural elements into the palace architecture of later nineteenth-century Calcutta.
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