Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Shiva's Bull
Not on view
Shiva’s bull, Vrishabha, is his faithful mount and most devout worshipper—the embodiment of devotion. The young bull is popularly but incorrectly called Nandi, “the joyful,” but is better referred to simply as Vrishabha, the “white bull.” He is understood as an expression of Shiva’s supreme wisdom and thus is also worshipped as a theriomorphic form of Shiva himself; note the third eye depicted on the bull’s forehead, associated with the god’s power to reveal divine knowledge. Shiva’s bull assumed an independent cult status. Shrines to Shiva’s bull—known in Khmer as Preah Koh—are popular in modern-day Cambodia, testifying to the resilience of such cults.
cat. no. 102
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