Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c8.s1.13

c8.s1.13

*Ardha-Nārīśvara*, half-male and half-female, viz. two conjoint portions of a single egg is the biological pattern of life. The Veda speaks of it as Man and Woman (*Tvaṃ Strī Tvaṃ Pumān*, AV. 108.27). Each woman is half-man and each man is half-woman (RV. I. 164.16). This is the nature of *Mithuna* or *Ardha-Nārīśvara* a composite form of Agni and Soma, is so graphically depicted in art from the Kushāṇa period onwards.