# Stone sculptures in a Shiva temple

- Date: c. 1710
- Medium: gum tempera and ink on paper
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Page: 38 x 24.8 cm (14 15/16 x 9 3/4 in.)
- Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
- Credit line: Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/2018.112)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/2018.112/2018.112_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Viewers see a temple sanctum, the innermost and holiest part of a temple, from the point of view of the artist standing in front of the doorway. On a pedestal is a stone carving of the Hindu god Shiva on his mount, the bull Nandi. His wife, the goddess Parvati, sits on a lotus above his folded knee. The flowers, textiles, and devotional pigments are traces of ardent religious activity. At the right is an abstract cylindrical sculpture denoting the formless essence of Shiva, known as a linga. The tridents in front of the linga’s pedestal were placed by devotees whose wishes came true after visiting the temple.