Most depictions of Lord Shiva show the River Ganga flowing from his hair, this is the story behind this:

There once was a powerful King called Sagar, who was about to conduct a horse sacrifice, to show his power over all of the Gods. Indra, the King of Heaven became jealous of this and stole the horse. He hid the horse in the ashram of a Sage who was meditating. King Sagar and his 60,000 sons found the horse in the ashram and began assaulting the Sage, as they thought he was the culprit. The Sage woke up from his meditation and killed all of his sons. King Sagar pleaded for forgiveness. The sage told him that he could take their souls to heaven and save the life of his grandson if the River Ganga came down from the heavens to purify their souls.

The force of the River Ganga flowing down from the heavens would destroy everything on Earth. So they sought the help of Lord Shiva. As he would be the only one who could withstand the power of Ganga, to break up her descent. Thus, Ganga fell on Shiva’s head, and he calmly let her out in small streams.

This painting is a depiction of this story, one can see the River Ganga flowing from Shiva’s hair, down through the lingam, through Ganesha into Gangotri (the source of the River Ganga on earth) and then eventually into Benares/Varanasi – the City of Death and Rebirth. The artist has included so much hidden detail within this artwork, leaving you mesmerised in awe.