Shiva seated on the bull Nandin
India, Kalighat district, Kolkata, West Bengal
Not on view
Shiva seated on the bull Nandin depicts the god Shiva as a rotund figure, nonchalantly seated on his calf-bull, whose head is turned affectionately towards his lord. Shiva is dressed in the stripped tiger skin skirt of an ascetic, and with entwined snakes providing his adornment; one even binds his top-knot of braided hair, head poised protectively. His eyes are upwards gazing, suggesting he is in an intoxicated state, as does the rhyton-type vessel he holds in his left hand, understood to contain the liquid extract of cannabis, bhang, a favorite hallucinogenic of Shiva.
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