KALI SEATED ON SHIVA-SAVA

The fearsome dark Goddess Kali - the most terrifying manifestation of the great Goddess Durga - seated triumphantly on the prostrate naked figures of Shiva and Sava within a flaming pyre - her glazed eyes rolled upwards and her tongue licking out in bloodlust after her victory against the asuras.  Nimbated, she wears an apron of severed limbs and a necklace of skulls - holding her attributes and weapons in her eight arms: a broadsword / goad / snakes / a noose / a trisula (trident) / lotus and golden paddle. The hillside strewn with bones as jackals howl in the distance.

Refer to Stella Kramrisch, Manifestations of Shiva, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981, cat. P48, p. 218.