The list of Hindu deities is like a museum of religion.This depiction of Shiva is painted in fauvist colors made popular by Paul Gauguin. Shiva is the destroyer who, in the endless turning of the world, clears away the old life to make room for the new. In the center is Shiva the absolute. Emerging on the left is Shiva as a male and on the right as female.These represent the opposing forms in which life appears in the world. This image copyright 2005 by John Keaton, Artists Rights Society.