The goddess as we see here is dark skinned subsuming within her all the colours in creation, and symbolizing at the same time the destruction that she wrecks. The image assimilates what is not outwardly beautiful but is inwardly loving, beauteous and sustaining. In one hand she has a sword, in another the head of the demon she has slain, with the other two she is encouraging her worshipers. With two hands destructive and the other two as blessing, she proves that she is both illusion (maya) and the knowledge that dispels it; is has both gentle and terrible forms; is both benign and martial, is both poles of any polarity, including reality and unreality.
The dead body that she rests so nonchalantly on in this work is the 'shava' or literally corpse which signifies many things - her triumph in general, the limits of time and in some cases even Siva, bereft of his power when his shakti has emanated itself and left him.
This description by Renu Rana.
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