A chromolithograph diptych published by the Calcutta Art Studio around 1885 to 1895, part of a set of five sheets depicting the Ten Mahavidyas, two goddesses to a sheet, labelled in Bengali and English. The left field shows Shorhasi (Shodashi, also identified with Tripurasundari), a beautiful sixteen-year-old form of the goddess associated with Shri Vidya worship. The right field shows the striking image of Chhinnamasta, who has severed her own head with her sword; she holds it in one hand as it drinks a stream of her own blood, flanked by two attendant yoginis who also drink from the blood jets, a self-decapitation read across Shakta theology as an image of self-sacrifice, the union of consciousness and vital energy, and the transcendence of death. Part of the same series later exhibited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in "Household Gods: Hindu Devotional Prints, 1860-1930".
Facts
Subject Matter
Depicted SubjectShorhasi/Shodashi (left field) and Chhinnamasta (right field), two of the Ten Mahavidyas. 2 Custody
Current LocationThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2 Current CustodianThe Metropolitan Museum of Art 2 Rights and Reproduction
Reproduction and CopyrightThis atlas describes and cites the print rather than reproducing an image of it. 2 Classification
Object TypePrint (Engraving, Etching, Woodcut or Lithograph) 2 Medium (class) Connections
Associated With
This source names Bengali directly: "two goddesses to a sheet, labelled in Bengali and English."
Source Shorhasi/Chinnamosta, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Belongs to Tradition
Derived: this work depicts a figure already recorded as belonging to this tradition; the work-to-tradition link is inferred from that live depicts edge and the figures own attested tradition affiliation, not independently sourced beyond it.
Depicts
Source Shorhasi/Chinnamosta, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Originated In
India, Regions Source Shorhasi/Chinnamosta, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sources
1. When India Reinvented Prints, New York Review of Books
Andrew Raftery, The New York Review of Books, 2026
2. Shorhasi/Chinnamosta, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Artcatalogue record, medium/object-type description
A chromolithograph diptych published by the Calcutta Art Studio around 1885 to 1895, part of a set of five sheets depicting the Ten Mahavidyas, two goddesses to a sheet, labelled in Bengali and English.
- Originated In: India, Stored country property on this entity, cited to this source: India
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