Sankaranarayana is one half Shiva and one half Vishnu, Vishnu is left half blue and Shiva is right half white. They both represent the equality between the two cultures and their Gods.
Ardhanarisvara shows Shiva with one half of the body as male and the other half as female. "the lord who is half woman", not as "half-man, half-woman". Form with parvati as the left half represents the bipolar nature of the created world and hence the need to look upon woman as equal and complementary to man.
The five faces of Shiva are are Isana, Tatpurusa, Aghora, Vamadeva, and Sadyojata. The five faced form are Pancanana and Panchanana. Each one of the faces has power over something important.
Shiva is a great a master of Yoga and spiritual sciences as he is of music, dancing and other arts. As a universal teacher he is called Daksinamurti. He is showing the hand gestures Jnanamudra and Varadamudra which mean the imparting of knowledge and the bestowing of gifts.
