Watercolor Painting Of Vishnu-Lakshmi On The Shoulders Of Lord Garuda

by Kapil Goel Director

Exotic India Art is a One-stop Ecommerce platform dealing with handmade products based on Indian Culture, Tradition, Region, and Religion since 1998. You will get doorstep product delivery facilities around the globe without adding any extra charges on it, with transparent services. You will get products based on Indian Arts, Paintings, Books, Sculptures, Textiles, Beads, Jewelry, Healthcare, Ayurveda, Audio, Video, and much more.

In the Exotic India Art gallery collections, you will get world-class handmade Arts and Paintings with multiple variations. You will get Arts and Paintings of Indian Hindu Paintings of God and Goddess, Buddhist, and more. You will Paintings based on Folk Art, Thangka Art, Persian Art, Mughal Art, Sikh Art, Wild Life Art, South Indian Art, Marble Art, Tantras, Watercolor Paintings, Oil Paintings, Madhubani Paintings, Batik Paintings, and much more. You will get all these Paintings on Paper, Rock, Cotton Clothes and in many different forms like Landscape, Portrait, Canvas, and much more.

Lord Vishnu and Mother Lakshmi are the divine couples responsible for preserving srishti as we know it. While He belongs to the trinity that otherwise comprises of Lord Brahma, the srishtikarta, and Lord Shiva, the destroyer; She, as His wife, presides over resources and is the Devi of affluence, a precondition for preservation. They are a beauteous couple as portrayed in this superfine watercolor, exuding in their togetherness a world of bliss. It is Lord Garuda who has hoisted the divine couple up on His magnificent shoulders. He is the vahana (mount) of Lord Vishnu, a ginormous example of divine life, unsurpassed in strength and vigor and martial prowess. In fact, in the Mahabharata, Dronacharya employs a military formation named after the great vulpine creature.

The setting is against a Mughal-style garden. Lush vegetation and ample flowering foliage characterise the surroundings of the deities. The parrot-beaked Lord Garuda supports His masters by their feet, the stance of His wings as if He is about to take off into the heavens. Lord Vishnu and His Devi Lakshmi are inauspiciously colored silks (saffron and red) and gold-and-pearls shringar. She secures Herself in position with a hand on the vahana's crown, as She sits in close communion with Her Lord. They are looking straight into each other's eyes, as His multiple weapons-laden arms flank their composite central figure. A rosy sunset dominates the background, bringing out the beauty of the delicate sprigs that dangle from the shock of green along the upper edge of the painting.

Vishnu-Lakshmi Watercolor Painting

This brilliant work of Watercolor Painting Of Vishnu-Lakshmi art, a painting in a miniature format in characteristic Kangra idiom of Pahari art style as evolved in many of its miniatures of around 1800-1810 A. D., one being on this very theme, almost its exact prototype, considered as one of the great masterpieces of Indian art, represents the eight-armed Lord Vishnu riding his 'vahana' Garuda. Garuda is supporting one of his feet on its right palm, while Lakshmi’s, his consort, on it's left. The painting, though a contemporary work, abounds in the same magnificence and luster as the earlier Kangra masterpiece of 1800 A. D. Unless chemically examined or an expert eye analysed, one might hardly distinguish this contemporary painting from its 1800’ proto-model.

The green-bodied Garuda with red beak has been represented as couched on a hexagonal golden chowki which an ivory plaque inlaid with precious gems comprising floral patterns tops. The chowki is placed on a garden-terrace conceived with flower-beds on char-bagh pattern and a fountain in front and on its back a column of taller flower-plants and a large tree with ‘mallika’ tree-type creepers suspending on it with its branches extending over the divine couple like a colorful canopy. Two straight rows of lotuses, comprising low railings, divide the terrace from the garden. In his four right hands the Great Lord is carrying an arrow, lotus, goad, and conch, and in his left, a bow, mace, disc, and a noose. Appropriately bejeweled Lord Vishnu is wearing his usual ‘pitambara’ – yellow lower wear, and the garland of white celestial Parijata flowers, besides his multi-crested crown.

Supported on his left thigh, Lord Vishnu has to ride along with him Lakshmi, his consort. Apart from that his all hands carry one attribute or the other, those on the left afford Lakshmi from behind dependable support too. In striking contrast to the blue, Lord Vishnu’s body color, and yellow, the color of his wear, Lakshmi has been painted with golden complexion, her body color, and bright orange, her costume, besides her dazzling jewels which further magnify their glow. Delightfully, Garuda’s green, the sacred bird’s body color, affords to both, Vishnu’s yellow and Lakshmi’s orange, a contrast not ever thought of. Lord Vishnu is passionately looking into the eyes of Lakshmi.

In Indian thought, Lord Vishnu is one of the Great Trinity – Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva who represent Creation, Sustenance, and Dissolution, the only manifest form of God in the Hindu way. The 'Puranic' literature weave around Lord Vishnu's great magnificence, spiritual aura, and the cult of incarnation. Devi Bhagavata acclaims Vishnu to be the earliest to emerge after the Great Deluge and recommence creation. Vishnu fought a thousand battles against 'asuras', and killed demons like Hayagriva, Madhu and Kaitabha, Andhaka, Vritrasura, Nemi, Sumali, Malyavan, and many others. Vishnu creates and sustains and his consort Lakshmi or Shri brings riches, fertility, and benefaction.