Shorhasi/Chinnamosta

This print belongs to a set of five prints depicting the 10 Mahavidyas. The Mahavidyas, who first appear in late medieval Hinduism, are considered to be individual incarnations or manifestations of the Great Goddess, paralleling the ten incarnations of Vishnu. An origin story relates them to ten forms assumed by Shiva's wife Sati, in her anger over the disrespect her father, Daksha, showed toward Shiva. The Mahavidyas were particularly honored in the Bengal region.

Shorhasi appears four-armed and seated on a lotus growing from the navel of Shiva. Shiva reclines on a platform supported by five divine beings (including Sadashiva and Vishnu). Chinnamosta stands on the embracing figures of Krishna and Radha, who are lying in a lotus bed. She holds a sword and her own severed head. Blood spurts from her neck into the mouths of two female attendants and into her own mouth.