04

Iko afer an original, before1906: Siwa Mahadewa, trachtte, 163 x 72 x 37 cm, Indies hall, Paleis Noordeinde palace, The Hague, objectnr. B-210. 

According to Wassing-Visser, the statue is made of trachyte from Mount Halimun (Wassing-Visser, Royal Gifts, 143-144). It was specially made for the Indian Hall in Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, which was a gift from the people of the Dutch East Indies on the occasion of the marriage to Prince Hendrik, Duke of Mecklenburg. In this guise, the supreme god Siwa (or Shiva) is depicted standing on a lotus cushion. The god has a halo behind his head: called a prabha in Hindu tradition. The god is four-armed and holds a prayer bead in his upper right hand and a sacred fly fan in his left. Of the other two arms, the right is raised and Siwa is making a gesture resembling a blessing; in the left, he holds a lotus flower bud. He is also adorned with a Brahmanical sacred bead, called an upawita, which runs from his left shoulder across his chest and back. Source: Wassing-Visser, Koninklijke Geschenken, 144