Kali seated on Shiva-Shava Copper alloy Northern India

The ferocious goddess, who symbolizes the terrible aspect of Shiva's sakti, is depicted holding a large, curved sword and a skull cup and seated on a prostrate Shiva-Shava (Shava meaning 'corpse'). She wears a patterned dhoti and jewelry including a necklace of severed heads.

Peter Cochrane Collection

The concept of the image comes from classical Hindu philosophy. Shiva, the supreme principle and cosmic spirit, is as inactive as the ground until the sakti, the supreme goddess, the cosmic substance and active power, touches him bringing him to life and thereby creating a new cosmos. For examples of this subject see Philip Rawson, Tantra, The Indian Cult of Ecstasy, Thames and Hudson, 1973, figs. 17 and 18. Also Stella Kramrisch, Manifestations of Shiva, Philadelphia, 1981, pp.216 - 218, Plates 47 & 48.