Union of Shiva and Parvati

Ardhanarishwara -- Half Shiva and Half Parvati

The Hindu pantheon is full of colour, as can be seen in this amazing gopuram in Madurai

tag.Hinduism has loads of gods – it makes Christianity look positively lightweight. However most of the stories are centred round a handful of big players, and it's worth knowing who they are.It's also worth noting that India's gods look very unlike the local population (unlike in Christianity, for example, where Jesus looks like a normal-looking human being). In no pictures of Hindu gods will you see a moustache, except occasionally on the baddies, such as the Ramayana's evil Lord Ravana; in India you will be hard pressed to find a man without the ratty porn-star look. Hindu gods and goddesses don't worry about flashing their flesh around, and although they keep the nether regions and mammaries well hidden, they always show a bit of leg; in India, legs are a novelty, so much so that when I saw foreigners wearing shorts, I'd cringe. And Hindu gods are either white-skinned or blue (the latter applying particularly to Krishna and Siva); Indians are neither white nor blue, but this may explain why it is more desirable for an Indian to be born light rather than dark. Anyway, on to the gods themselves...