Plaque with images of a standing Virabhadra, the personified wrath of Shiva, with his wife, Bhadrakali and the goat-headed, Daksha, on his left and right respectively with thier hands clasped together in devotion. Virabhadra has a cobra's head and a monster's head (kirttimukha) immediately above his towering matted locks.He wears a garland of skulls round his waist down to his knees and he has a third eye incised in the middle of his forehead. The image of a damaru or hourglass-shaped drum and a quoit are incised to the right of his head. In his four hands he carries a trident, a sword, a bow and a shield. The figures of the ram or goat-headed Daksha and of Bhadrakali are smaller and their hands are pressed together in the gesture of anjali. There are several holes in the plaque eitherbas fixing points for the plaque to be nailed to a wall, or to receive flowers as part of the puja ritual.
Virabhadra is ancarnation of Shiva He was created after Shiva’s wife, Sati, was not invited to a great sacrifice given by her father Daksha. Sati, being greatly humiliated, went to the banquet and threw herself on the sacrificial fire. When Shiva heard of his wife’s death, he tore a hair from his head and threw it to the ground. Virabhadra, a great hero-warrior, arose from this hair. He cut off Daksha’s head in his rage and hurled it into the sacrificial fire. After the other gods calmed Shiva down, Daksha’s head was replaced by that of a goat (sometimes shown as the head of a ram) and he became a devotee of Shiva.