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Lot Essay
The unusual iconography of this bronze makes identifying this deity especially difficult. Pal has noted a couple of related double-sided works in stone, which have been identified through Kashmiri iconographical texts as a form of Shiva known as Bhuteshvara. Found only in Kashmir, Shiva in this form shares his body with an attendant, Nandin, who in the present work would be the figure holding the club. The goat had been associated with the iconography of Shiva since the Kushan times and is found in the present work rearing up in obeisance to his master.
More recently, Rossi and Rossi have identified the deity as Pashupati, the "Lord of Animals," an Indian deity now popular in Nepal. With the curved staff of the trident, the deity has the appearance of a pastoral herdsman, and indeed the followers of the Pashupati sect see the deity as a celestial shepherd. The spiraled horns of the goat, they believe, give it the appearance of a gazelle, an important aspect in the story of Pashupati in which Shiva seeks solace from the worshipping masses in the form of that animal in a wooded valley. Rossi and Rossi have suggested the figure holding the club is either Pashupati sect's guru, Lakulisha, or the god of death, Yama.
More recently, Rossi and Rossi have identified the deity as Pashupati, the "Lord of Animals," an Indian deity now popular in Nepal. With the curved staff of the trident, the deity has the appearance of a pastoral herdsman, and indeed the followers of the Pashupati sect see the deity as a celestial shepherd. The spiraled horns of the goat, they believe, give it the appearance of a gazelle, an important aspect in the story of Pashupati in which Shiva seeks solace from the worshipping masses in the form of that animal in a wooded valley. Rossi and Rossi have suggested the figure holding the club is either Pashupati sect's guru, Lakulisha, or the god of death, Yama.