VISHNU AND HIS CONSORT ENTHRONED

Pahari, KANGRA VALLEY, perhaps Garwhal, CIRCA 1800

Footnotes

Provenance
Purchased from Hearst & Hearst, Boston, USA, in the early 1980s.
Private Collection, Boston USA.

Chaturbhuja (four-armed) Vishnu is depicted carrying his identifying objects: a mace, a lotus, a discus and a conch shell in each of his four hands. The artist has chosen to represent Vishnu in his avatar as Krishna, denoted by his blue body. He is also clad in a bright yellow dhoti and a marching scarf around his neck — a colour used for Krishna's garments - and a crown and jewels, in line with the iconographic convention designating Vishnu as a king. His consort, probably Lakshmi, is dressed in a green blouse, a bright orange skirt and a golden odhni that covers her head.

The particularly notable feature of this painting is the situating of the enthroned couple within a yantra, a mystical diagram derived mostly from the Tantric tradition, used in temples and in homes to aid meditation and also for the benefits that their occult powers are supposed to yield. The circular border around the enthroned divine couple is surrounded by lotus petals. The lotus is a symbol of purity, creation and transcendence, but more importantly it has associations with the idea of fertility, a symbol of the female reproductive organ. Eight-petalled lotuses, such as this one, point in the cardinal and intermediate directions. While yantras can be of several types, those which assist in the worship of deities are called pujayantras, with the lotus around the central portion, surrounded by a square with four gates.

The reverse of the painting carries a couplet in nagari, which means that it is said that whoever chants the name of Raghubir (i.e. Lord Ram, who is also an incarnation of Vishnu) will be absolved of his/her sins, have no fear of death, and will remain happy. The second line states that Lakshmi Narayana (i.e. Lord Vishnu and the Goddess Lakshmi) reside in the heart.