Apr 5, 2018
The goddess Durga as a destroyer of the buffalo-demon, Mahisha. Gold-plated copper alloy inlaid with semiprecious stones. This statue of the goddess Durga with eighteen arms was originally placed on a pedestal, on which he annihilated the buffalo-demon Mahisha, crushing it with his foot while nailing him the trident of Shiva. The victory of good over evil depicted here follows a battle in which Mahisha had defeated the male gods. Desperate, the gods invited Durga to be their paladin and loaned him magic weapons, with which he killed the buffalo-demon, thus freeing the universe from darkness. Durga is the supreme expression of the devi's power, and is represented as "the invulnerable, the unconquerable.”