The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

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SOUTH INDIAN BRONZES 329
257. Bronze Parvati from South India.
Washington, D.C., Freer Gallery ofArt
terrible aspect of Siva's spouse Parvati. She is
the goddess of destruction and death, worshipped
at the noisome Kali temple at Calcutta, who
claims the blood of millions in pestilence and
war. She is shown as a dreadful, emaciated hag,
squatting in the burning-ground and holding
the cymbals which clash the measure of her
ghoulish dance. The same suggestion of tension
and imminent movement observed in other
South Indian bronzes is present in this statue.
Protruding tusks specifically proclaim her demoniacal
aspect, and the modelling of her
enormous eyes, scored with lines repeating their
outline under brows in the familiar shape of the
258. Bronze Kali from Tanjore.
Kansas City, Nelson Gallery ofArt
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