Uma Copper alloy South India

The Goddess standing in elegant tribhanga on an upturned lotus placed upon a raised plinth, her pendent left hand in lolahasta mudra and her raised right hand in katakahasta mudra. She wears a tiered conical crown with a siraschakra at the back and is ornamented in necklaces and foliate armbands. Her closely-fitted dhoti is patterned with incised horizontal stripes and secured at her waist with a triple-banded girdle.

Uma or Parvati, the Great Goddess and consort of Shiva is venerated as the ideal woman in Hinduism; sensuous, gracious, fertile, and South Indian bronze casters perfected her portrayal as a graceful, voluptuous woman of exquisite beauty as seen in this image. 

Stylistic features such as the deity's broad face with its sharply defined features, the rotund breasts with raised nipples, the broad hips and the lavish ornamentation suggest a post-Chola or Vijayanagara date for this sculpture. Compare the overall form and the detailing of the dhoti with a sculpture of the Goddess in the Pan-Asian Collection, see Pal, 1977, cat. 66, p. 112.