Page 36 - Highlights of the Collection
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Dancing Shiva
India, Tamil Nadu, 950-1000
H. 76.2 cm, bronze
The subject of various iconographic forms in Hinduism,
Shiva is here represented in a human yet fantastic
configuration. An ambivalent god, he watches over
his devotees and destroys the world at the end of a
cosmic cycle, liberating the universe and doing away
with ignorance. Among his many forms, this is one of
the most renowned, that of the Lord of the Dance,
or Nataraja.
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