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Anamallai & Unnamadai, Lingam & Parvati, Style of Tiru 6"

Anamallai & Unnamadai, Lingam & Parvati, Style of Tiru 6"
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Materials: Lost Wax Method South Indian Polished Bronze

Total Height Including Base: 6 inches

Base Width & Depth: 6 x 4 inches

Weight: 4 pounds

Item # 40b39a

  • Description
  • About Shiva
  • Care

  • Annamalaiyar or Arunachaleswarar is Lord Shiva worshiped as a Shiva Lingam.  In this sculpture Annamalaiyar is decorated with garlands.  Above the Lingam is a five headed cobra.  Parvati is next to the Lingam.  She is also decorated as Shiva is decorated.  The five headed cobra can be removed from the piece.  Both figures of Shiva and Parvati can also be removed from the base for easy cleaning and transport.

    About the Golden Polish:  This bronze sculpture has been polished after casting giving it a golden shine.  Polished bronze pieces are often used in temples.  Temples prefer the polished bronze icons because the rituals involved in puja often involve bathing the bronze deity, which naturally removes the bronze patina of an older piece.  Over time and with no periodic care the golden polish will naturally dull to form a dark patina that is naturally found on aged bronze.

  • Shiva the Destroyer (Sanskrit: Auspicious One), or Siva, is one of the main Deities of Hinduism, worshipped as the paramount lord by the Saivite sects of India. Shiva is one of the most complex gods of India, embodying seemingly contradictory qualities. He is the destroyer and the restorer, the great ascetic and the symbol of sensuality, the benevolent herdsman of souls and the wrathful avenger.
    Shiva was originally known as Rudra, a minor deity addressed only three times in the Rig Veda.  He gained importance after absorbing some of the characteristics of an earlier fertility god and became Shiva, part of the trinity, or trimurti, with Vishnu and Brahma.
    Shiva wears a snake coiled around his upper arms and neck symbolizing the power he has over the most deadly of creatures. Snakes are also used to symbolize the Hindu dogma of reincarnation. Their natural process of molting or shedding their skin is symbolic of the human soul's transmigration of bodies from one life to another.
    Shiva's female consort and wife is Parvati; because of his generosity and reverence towards Parvati, Shiva is considered an ideal role model for a husband. The divine couple together with their sons - the six-headed Skanda and the elephant headed Ganesh - reside on Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas. 
    His guardian is Nandi (the white bull), whose statue can often be seen watching over the main shrine.  The bull is said to embody sexual energy, fertility.  Riding on its back, Shiva is in control of these impulses.
    He often holds a trident, which represents the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu.  It is also said to represent the threefold qualities of nature: creation, preservation and destruction, although preservation is usually attributed to Vishnu.
    As the destroyer, Shiva is dark and terrible, encircled with serpents and a crown of skulls.
    Shiva often wears sacred Rudaksha beads, perhaps a reference to his earlier name Rudra.
    The crescent moon Shiva wears on his crown, besides being a symbol of Kama the goddess of nightly love, also represents the bull, Nandi, a fertility symbol.
    Shiva holds a skull that represents samsara, the cycle of life, death and rebirth.  Samsara is a central belief in Hinduism.  Shiva himself also represents this complete cycle because he is Mahakala, the Lord of Time, destroying and creating all things.
    Shiva is represented in a variety of forms.  One such form is as a lingam.  The ovoid shape is a representation of the absolute perfection of Lord Shiva - if that which is beyond form had to be given form, the lingam would be the closest form to the mystical experience of the absolute perfection of Shiva.   Shiva is often pictured in a pacific mood with his consort Parvati, as the cosmic dancer Nataraja, as a naked ascetic, as a mendicant beggar, as a yogi, and as the androgynous union of Shiva and Parvati in one body (Ardhanarisvara).
    Another example of Shiva's apparent synthesis of male and female attributes is seen in his earrings.  He wears one earring in the style of a man and the other as a female.
    Shiva's third eye is a symbol of higher consciousness.  It is also a weapon he uses to destroy his enemies by emitting a fire missile which has the power to incinerate the three worlds.  He can also kill all the gods and other creatures during the periodic destruction of the universe.  Shiva's third eye first appeared when Parvati, his wife, playfully covered his other two eyes, so Shiva opened his third eye emitting his destructive missile endangering the three worlds.

     

    Click here to learn more about Shiva

  • Regular dusting should keep the piece clean. Over the years the golden polish will fade. In order to keep the piece shiny you can use a cotton rag and some coconut oil to regularly clean the piece. You can also use lemon or tamarind juice to wipe the piece down. The acid from the lemon/tamarind removes any patina.