Virabhadra bronze from India – 16th-17th century

Virabhadra

This fine, detailed image shows Virabhadra standing on a lotus pedestal holding a sword and a shield with his front two hands, and a bow and an arrow with his back two hands. Daksha, his hands in anjali mudra, stands to his right. An aureole terminates with a kirtimukha motif.

Virabhadra came into being after Daksha grossly insulted Shiva’s wife who subsequently suicided and Shiva created him as a form of himself and gave him an army to exact revenge from Daksha. Virabhadra cut off Daksha’s head in battle. The other gods persuaded Shiva to bring Daksha back to life. But Daksha’s head could not be found and so it was substituted with the head of a goat, as shown in this bronze.