Can you help me identify my deity?

[Guest guest]

I don't see what Llundrub is defining as a conch shell. There is no third eye, so the figure is not Tantric. Right leg is raised in a dancing posture. The cardboard eye someone placed over the upper left hand is obscuring any identifying object possibly underneath. I agree with D.B. that the figure's gender is unclear -- it is a truth that "there is no such thing as a flat-chested Hindu goddess"!

 

Sometimes a murti simply presents a generic Gana or Devadhuta. I many years ago purchased a bronze of a dancing female figure; hair pulled back in a long braid, left leg raised off the ground. No objects in her two hands. For a long time I simply referred to her as "the Apsaras" (one of the dancing girls in Indra's court).

 

Last year when a friend gifted me with a murti of Heramba Ganapati, I noticed that the Apsaras was sculpted in a similar style, and slightly smaller than Heramba. I've placed her to his left on the altar, and refer to her now as Pushti Devi (a name given to Ganesha's consort as power of Abundance).. The promotion seems to suit her.

 

-- Len/ Kalipadma

 

 

Devi Bhakta <devi_bhakta > wrote: Hi Llundrub:

 

I am not sure I agree on that. Why do you think it is Mahalakshmi?

 

Geek that I am, I enlarged and brightened the pic in Photoshop --

and I think it is simply a Siva Nataraja without the usual ring of

fire. There is plenty of sculptural precedent for that.

 

Upper right hand seems to be holding damaru; lower right is abhaya

mudra. Upper left is obscured because something has hung what seems

to be a hand-drawn eye on a rawhide cord. But I'll bet there could

be a ball of fire behind it, which would confirm it as Nataraja.

Likewise, lower left hand is partially concealed by some round

object draped over it; so I can't tell what mudra or object is there.

 

In any event, I am quite certain the figure is not female -- Siva is

androgynous to be sure; but the sculptor would almost certainly have

given a Devi a more prominent cup size. *lol*

 

In any event, that's my two paise ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How low will we go? Check out Messenger’s low PC-to-Phone call rates.