India, Gujarat, 11th century

Beautifully carved in deep relief, Shiva sits atop his faithful bull with his beloved Parvati in his lap. He holds a trident in his upper right hand and a cobra in his left. His lower right fingers delicately hold a lotus blossom, while his lower left hand gently cups his wife’s breast. Parvati wraps her right arm around his shoulders and holds a mirror in her left hand, while her pendant leg rests on the bull’s rump. Their fleshy bodies are clothed in striated dhotis and adorned with elaborate jewelry. Their plump faces with gentle smiles express their tenderness toward one another. Their elaborately braided coiffures are secured with jeweled tiaras. The loving couple are flanked by numerous figures including their sons Ganesha, standing at bottom right, and Skanda at bottom left. Brahma and Vishnu sit on either side of the lotiform halo, above.
Compare the present work with a ninth century Almoran stone sculpture of Umamaheshvara in the Victoria and Albert Museum (IS.113-1986). Carved from two different types of stone – the V example from a grey-green stone and the present work from a black schist - both sculptures are rendered in very deep relief with rounded thickly modeled figures. While the bull in the V work is depicted diminutively at the god’s foot, he is fully manifest as the couple’s mount in the present sculpture.