Descent of the Ganges

c. 1700–1710

Northern India, Pahari kingdoms

Medium

Measurements

Page: 20.8 x 29.8 cm (8 3/16 x 11 3/4 in.); Image: 17.6 x 26.9 cm (6 15/16 x 10 9/16 in.)

Credit Line

Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.111

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Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

Shiva and the other sages rest on tiger hides.

Description

In the upper left, Shiva sits with his wife Parvati on Mount Kailash in the Himalayas. She offers him a cup of wine, but Shiva looks down intently at the holy man Bhagiratha. He has stood on one leg for 1,001 years to obtain the gift of the Ganges River, which flows from Shiva’s topknot of hair. A dedicated devotee can divert the god’s attention, even from his beautiful wife and a cup of wine.

By Mount Kailash is the icy Lake Manasarowar, still a major pilgrimage place for followers of Shiva. Hoping to earn the god’s favor, devoted practitioners perform acts of rigorous physical discipline.