Shiva, Uma, and Their Son Skanda - New York City, NY
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Metro2
N 40° 46.762 W 073° 57.762
18T E 587529 N 4514782
This sculpture is located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Waymark Code: WMN4XM
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 12/27/2014
Views: 4
The Museum's website for this piece (
visit link) provides the following information:
"Shiva, Uma, and Their Son Skanda (Somaskandamurti)
Period: Chola period (880–1279)
Date: early 11th century
Culture: India (Tamil Nadu)
Medium: Copper alloy
Dimensions: H. 29 7/8 in. (53 cm); W. 21 7/8 in. (55.6 cm); D. 10 1/4 in. (26.2 cm)
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Purchase, Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust Gift, in honor of Cynthia Hazen and Leon B. Polsky, 1982
Accession Number: 1982.220.10
On view in Gallery 240
Somaskandamurti is one of the most popular religious images in South India. The four-armed Shiva holds a battle-ax and a deer in his upper hands and a citron in his lower left hand. His lower right hand is raised in abhayamudra (the gesture that allays fear). His consort, Parvati, holds a water lily in her right hand. Between them stands Skanda, their infant son, bejeweled and holding a lotus in his right hand. Four rings at the lower corners of the pedestal allowed the sculpture to be secured to a platform in order to be carried in processions. This sculpture would have had a halo, which has not survived."