Though strictly adhering to the classical norms of his divine iconography, for representing the age-perspective of the child Ganesh the artist has manipulated his body-size in relation to his mother’s, his trunk – greedy of her affectionate touch, stretched to reach her breasts, his ‘laddu’-carrying extended hand as if offering them to his mother for winning her love, and his vehicle mouse transformed into a tiny toy-like play-thing – more a cat than a mouse. An essentially devotional mind, the artist has conceived the figure of Lord Ganesh, despite that his focal point was the elephant headed god’s childhood, pursuing broadly the established norms of his divine iconography, not merely in delineating his basic features and figural anatomy but also in representing his figure with some of his regular attributes, specially his axe and ‘laddu’ – balls-like sweet, and lotus, and with his usual jewels, crown-type, and wears, all defining his divine status, as also his maturity irrespective of his age. As is the theological principle, divine figures always have an alike level of maturity, hold their specific attributes and are in their pre-determined roles, right since their birth.
Exceptionally simplified figure of Parvati, an extremely happy mother, has on her face a village woman’s bliss that she has when after her daylong occupation she finds moments to have her child in her lap. Instead of her sensuous beauty, with wide-exposed breasts, largely unclad body and amour in eyes, her usual vision in classical poetry like the Kumarasambhava by the first century Sanskrit poet Kalidasa, and in ancient and medieval sculptures scattered all over, the painter of this canvas has sought to discover her ever enduring beauty and charm in her naive simplicity, naturalness and gracefully covered body. Not a created or conceived thing, or a formal being for stage, or even one endowed with divinity, the round-faced, large-eyed and long thick-haired Parvati, a coy maiden, as she appears to be in this painted version, is essentially one from the perishable human world. Parvati has behind her a huge body of metaphysics or rhetoric, and Puranic contentions that perceive her as Shiva’s ‘shakti’ – his essential spirit and life-force, or manifestation of cosmic feminine energy – the source of entire creation and cosmic womanhood; however, in this version of her, the mind inclines to worship her, to admire her beauty, the beauty of her long thick black hair, thick deep eyebrows, large eyes, and her form but all with a kind of emotionality that one has for someone around him.
This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a number of books.
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