Shiva, iconic bronze as Ardhanarisvara, very finely sculptured, ca 19th century 12.5 ".This iconographic
representation of Shiva as Ardhanrvara (Ardhanarisvara) with one half of the body as male and the
other half as female (ParvatI) demonstrates the power of the primordial
genders, the male and female. According to Ellen Goldberg the
traditional Sanskrit name for this form (Ardhanrvara) is best translated as
"the lord who is half woman". According to legend, Lord Shiva is pleased by the difficult
austerities performed by the goddess Parvati, grants her the left half of his
body. This form of Shiva is quite similar to the Yin-Yang philosophy of Eastern
Asia, though Ardhanrvara appears to be more ancient.
The left half of the image bears two arms representing Shiva
and his dhoti is short while the right half belongs to Parvati with fulll
developed breast and one arm.