Parvati in the Princeton University Art Museum, April 2017

Indian, Vijayanagara period, 1336-1646

Place made: India

Parvati, 16th century

Gray-brown schist

h. 144.0 cm., w. 63.0 cm., d. 21.0 cm. (56 11/16 x 24 13/16 x 8 1/4 in.)

Gift of J. Lionberger Davis, Class of 1900 (part exchange for painting by Wang Hui, 64-184)

y1966-38

Gallery Label:

This monumental sculpture represents Shiva’s spouse Parvarti in her aspect as Gauri, the Fair Lady, who is a favorite deity of those desiring prosperity and riches. She stands in a strictly frontal pose known as sampada—a pose also found in classical Indian dance—holding prayer beads in her upper right hand and a lotus bud in the upper left. The lower right hand (now missing) was almost certainly in the abhaya mudra, an attitude by which the deity grants her followers protection; her lower left hand, in the vara mudra, shows that she fulfills her devotees’ wishes. She wears a long loincloth that is gathered into an elaborate girdle decorated with pearl strings, and her hair is decorated with jewels to resemble a crown.

Text from: artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/30379