Hindu art: images and worship
In Hindu sculpture, deities take forms identifiable through attributes, gestures and accompanying figures. The discus and conch recur in images of Vishnu; the trident and the bull Nandi are associated with Shiva. The significance of each feature depends on the composition and the divine form represented.
Works belong to different types: principal cult images, figures incorporated into temple architecture and narrative reliefs. Their placement helps explain their function and relationship to other sculptures in the complex. An isolated architectural fragment preserves only part of these relationships and requires care when reconstructing its context.
The study of an image therefore distinguishes subject, style and intended setting. Identifying the deity does not establish where or when a sculpture was made: proportions, clothing, ornaments and workmanship must be compared with documented works. Such comparisons reveal the choices of regional traditions within shared conventions.
The seventh–eighth-century Cambodian head of Harihara shows two divine identities united in a single face. Vishnu’s mitre and Shiva’s chignon distinguish the components through the headdress. The unity of the modelling remains legible in the work’s fragmentary condition. This example allows iconography to be studied through surviving elements and reveals the interpretation of a Hindu theme within pre-Khmer sculpture.
Metal images from Nepal introduce a different technical and geographical setting. eleventh-century Shiva Mahadeva and fourteenth-century Indra, both from the Kathmandu Valley, document Hindu subjects in local gilded-copper production. The comparison distinguishes deities and chronologies while tracing shared skills in the making of sacred images. Buddhist subjects within the same craft setting make it particularly useful to study technique and iconography as connected aspects, each with its own terms of comparison.
References and comparisons
