A large bronze figure of Parvati

The expert craftsmen of the Chola period produced figures of the goddess Parvati that are among the most sensuous images in the history of Indian art. With a slender yet curvaceous figure and wearing the ornaments of a queen, the goddess is the embodiment of the ideals of Indian beauty. In Tamil poetry of the bhakti saints, Parvati's exquisite beauty is espoused through metaphors of the beauties found in nature: her thighs are tapered like the plantain tree, her waist is a slender creeper, her breasts are golden vessels filled with the nectar of the gods, and her gait expressed through the elegant tribhanga pose in which she stands mocks that of the peacock.