South Indian Bronze Shiva on a Tiger Skin, c. 1930–1960

Shiva as Mahayogi from a Tamil workshop

Hollow-cast in a South Indian workshop of the Tamil tradition sometime between 1930 and 1960, this small seated Shiva appears as Mahayogi, the great yogi. He sits on a tiger skin whose head and paws are cast as part of the oval base. The figure is 13.7 cm high and weighs 600 grams. The surface has a dark brown to black patina, worn through on the high points. There is no gilding.

The great yogi

As Mahayogi, Shiva is the ascetic par excellence, the god who withdraws into meditation. His hair is piled up into a jatamukuta, with the crescent moon at his left shoulder. His forehead carries the third eye and three horizontal lines, and he wears strands of rudraksha beads. His upper right hand holds the trishula, the trident; the lower right is raised in abhaya mudra, the gesture of protection that dispels fear, while the left hand rests on his knee. The tiger skin beneath him is a constant attribute of Shiva the ascetic. Figures of this size stood on a household shrine for daily puja.

Mid-twentieth-century South Indian casting

The figure is lost-wax cast and hollow. The underside is open, with a central casting hole, and reveals a rough casting core and green copper oxidation inside. The modelling is soft: a simplified face, blocky fingers and a schematic tiger head. A fourth arm is left out of the composition, as is usual for this workshop type. All of this fits a domestic puja bronze from a Tamil workshop of around 1930–1960 – not a 19th-century shrine piece, not a temple bronze in the Chola line, and not the thin, bright casting of the post-1980 period.

Description

Shiva is seated on a tiger skin on an oval base, the tiger's head at the front and its paws on either side. His upper right hand holds the trident, the lower right is raised in abhaya mudra and the left rests on his knee. He wears a stacked jatamukuta with crescent moon, a third eye and three horizontal lines on the forehead, rudraksha necklaces, ear pendants and bracelets.

Condition

Stable and complete. No breaks and no gilding. The dark patina is rubbed through in places, with wear to the forehead, necklaces, knees and tiger head, and there are small pits and scratches. Green oxidation is found only on the inside.

Specifications

• Origin: South India, Tamil tradition
• Date: 20th century, c. 1930–1960
• Material: bronze, hollow-cast
• Subject: seated Shiva as Mahayogi on a tiger skin
• Dimensions: H 13.7 × W 8.5 cm
• Weight: 600 g
• SKU: 846

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