Shiva Dancing

East Pediment, Mandapa, Phnom Rung

This pediment appears above the lintel shown on the previous page. It depicts Shiva dancing upon a narrow dais. The god has ten arms, of which eight (four on each side) are bent upward. The lowest right arm is bent inward, and the lowest left arm (broken off at the elbow) is extended downward. His hair is arranged in the style that has been noted on the pediment of the eastern gopura. Sitting at Shiva's feet are four broken figures. The farthest right can be identified (barely) as his son, Ganesh, with elephant head and trunk. The two on the left are female disciples. On their backs they originally carried children, identifiable now only by the tiny sculpted feet and hands that remain above their pendulous breasts.