Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction, is seated with his wife, Parvati, a goddess of fertility, motherhood, and nurturance. Shiva is identified by the trident (now broken) in his right hand, the staff embellished with a snake and skull in his left, and his third eye of wisdom. His hair is piled atop his head in the matted locks of an ascetic and is adorned with his emblematic crescent moon. Parvati embraces her husband with her right arm and in her left hand holds a mirror that she uses to reflect her husband's glory as well as her own beauty. In this and other classic northern and central Indian images of Shiva and Parvati, the divine couple is typically portrayed interacting with a certain degree of restraint. This varies from eastern Indian images, in which their conjugal intimacy is more rapturously expressed.
Shiva's bull mount, popularly called Nandi, is recumbent beneath the gods. Shiva's favorite attendant, the skeletal Bhringi, dances in front of the bull, and their two sons, the elephant-headed Ganesha and the peacock-riding Kumara, sit at either side. Several attendants are also present. Along the top are the three-headed creator god Brahma and the god of preservation, Vishnu, deities who with Shiva form the Hindu trinity. Between them are five lingas (aniconic/phallic symbol of Shiva) symbolizing the five philosophical aspects of Shiva.
