Head of Addorsed Maheshvara
This sculpture depicting Shiva is altogether a more complex and esoteric religious icon. The Head of Addorsed Maheshvara represents Shiva, with braids of hair drawn up into a fanned topknot, again displaying a crescent moon on the chignon and the third eye on the forehead. However, in a rarely represented form, Shiva bears on his shoulders a squatting dwarf-like personage, a gana, grinning wide-mouthed, eyes focused skyward, as if ecstatic in his devotion, perhaps engaged in singing in praise of his Lord. Shiva displays classic 5th–6th century late Gupta features: a rounded fleshy face, cascading locks of hair and large circular earplugs. Though not entirely clear, he appears to hold in each hand a disc and a crescent, presumably intended to represent solar symbols. On the reverse is a grotesque face—a wild and early form of Shiva sometimes identified as Rudra (‘the howler’). This esoteric form of Shiva is rarely found and is confined to the mid–first millennium; a stone sculpture of a standing Shiva with squatting gana astride his shoulders has been identified at the Rang Mahal site in Rajasthan, a region with strong links with the northeast regions in the 7th century.
Artwork Details
- Title: Head of Addorsed Maheshvara
- Date: ca. 6th century
- Culture: Northern Pakistan (Brahmanical post-Gupta)
- Medium: Stone, probably chlorite
- Dimensions: H. 5 1/8 in. (13 cm); W. 5 1/4 in. (13.3 cm); D. 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Purchase, Anonymous Gift, 2014
- Object Number: 2014.687
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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