{
"data": {
"id": 137220,
"accession_number": "1962.164",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Shiva as Slayer of the Elephant Demon, 1000s. South India, Tamil Nadu, early Chola Period, 11th century. Granite; overall: 72.4 x 48.3 x 20.3 cm (28 1/2 x 19 x 8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1962.164",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Shiva as Slayer of the Elephant Demon",
"creation_date": "1000s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1000,
"creation_date_latest": 1099,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"South India, Tamil Nadu, early Chola Period, 11th century"
],
"technique": "granite",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
"collection": "Indian Art",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 72.4 x 48.3 x 20.3 cm (28 1/2 x 19 x 8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.724,
"height_inch": 28,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 0.483,
"width_inch": 19,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"depth": 0.203,
"depth_inch": 8,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.0
},
"No Extent Specified": {}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 302276,
"title": "Year in Review - 1962",
"description": "Year in Review - 1962. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24-November 25, 1962).",
"opening_date": "1962-10-24T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311878,
"title": "Dance of the Gods: Indian Art Inspired by Music",
"description": "Dance of the Gods: Indian Art Inspired by Music. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 24-December 8, 1996).",
"opening_date": "1996-09-24T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 379206,
"title": "Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in Art",
"description": "Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in Art. The Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH (organizer) (November 11, 2022-February 5, 2023) https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions/beyond-bollywood-2000-years-of-dance-in-art/; Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (March 31-July 10, 2023) https://exhibitions.asianart.org/exhibitions/beyond-bollywood-2000-years-of-dance-in-art/.",
"opening_date": "2022-11-11T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Shiva and His Many Incarnations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 24, 2007\u2013January 18, 2008).",
"opening_date": "2007-06-24T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(William H. Wolff [1906\u20131991], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131962",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1962\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "In an exuberant dance posture with eight arms, Shiva is shown here in his wrathful aspect, with disheveled hair, bulging eyes, and fangs. He has just successfully flayed the skin of an elephant demon and triumphantly stretches it out behind him, its two hind feet sticking up at the right corner of the panel. The elephant in rut, in its demonic form, was used as a metaphor for uncontrolled passions that Shiva helps to conquer in the mind of the devotee, so that the devotee can better focus his attentions on the god himself. In the lower left corner, a dwarfish member of Shiva's entourage beats the rhythm of the dance on his drum. His wife, the goddess Parvati, looks on with admiration.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60760730"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1962.164-shiva-as-slayer-of-t"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 235",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n259"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 235",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n259"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 298",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n318"
},
{
"citation": "Kramrisch, Stella. Manifestations of Shiva. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 39, p. 46",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 36 no. 07, September 1996.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 2",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM1996-07/page/2"
},
{
"citation": "Donley, Gregory M., \"A Magnificent Chola Sculpture\", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 47 no. 07, September 2007.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 4",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2007-07/page/4"
},
{
"citation": "McGill, Forrest. Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in the Arts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayan Region. San Francisco, CA: Asian Art Museum, 2022.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 160\u2013161, no. 46",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "\"Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in Art.\" Asian Art: the Newspaper for Collectors, Dealers, Museums and Galleries 26, i. 2 (Winter 2022): 10\u201311.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 10",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1962.164",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1962.164/1962.164_web.jpg",
"width": "668",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "131228",
"filename": "1962.164_web.jpg"
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"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1962.164/1962.164_print.jpg",
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"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1962.164/1962.164_full.tif",
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},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 137220,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1962-06-02T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1000,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1000s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Shiva's Gajasura - Samharamurti (Slayer of the Elephant Demon)",
"Gajasura-Samharamurti: \u015aiva in Elephant-Killing Aspect"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-06-02 11:23:17.611000"
}
}