Lithograph by C. Motte with fine original hand-colour. Sheet size approx. 407 x 280mm. (16 x 11.25ins).

From L'Inde Française ou collection de dessins lithographes representant ... des peuples hindous qui habitent les possessions françaises de l'Inde.  (French India or a collection of lithographic drawings representing .... some Hindu people who inhabit the French possessions in India). 'Lith de Marlet & Cie. R. du Bouloi. No. 19’.

One of the three great Hindu deities, three-eyed, four-armed Shiva, encircled by two serpents, is astride the bull, Nandi holding his wife Parvati. In this instance depicted as coloured green, she holds a lotus bud symbolising virginity. Siva embodies the seemingly contradictory qualities of destructiveness and regeneration. His consort, Parvati symbolises many different virtues esteemed by Hindu tradition: fertility, marital felicity, devotion to the spouse, asceticism and power. It has been said that Shiva gains his powers from Parvati.

Colas 490. R. Colas, Bibliographie Générale de Costume et de la Mode. 2 volumes. Paris, 1933.