Stone sculptures in a Shiva temple (c. 1710): Art, History and Details

Stone sculptures in a Shiva temple (c. 1710) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Viewers see a temple sanctum, the innermost and holiest part of a temple, from the point of view of the artist standing in front of the doorway. On a pedestal is a stone carving of the Hindu god Shiva on his mount, the bull Nandi. His wife, the goddess Parvati, sits on a lotus above his folded knee. The flowers, textiles, and devotional pigments are traces of ardent religious activity. At the right is an abstract cylindrical sculpture denoting the formless essence of Shiva, known as a linga. The tridents in front of the linga’s pedestal were placed by devotees whose wishes came true after visiting the temple.

Object facts

• Title: Stone sculptures in a Shiva temple
• Date: c. 1710
• Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera and ink on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 38 x 24.8 cm (14 15/16 x 9 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2018.112

A detail from the museum

An image of Ganesha can be seen on the left wall of the sanctum sanctorum.

Collection credit

Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Griswold, William, Cameron Kitchin, Chase F. Robinson, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, and National Museum of Asian Art (Smithsonian Institution). Pahari Paintings: Art and Stories, edited by Sonya Rhie Mace, Sarang Sharma, and Vijay Sharma. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2026.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.