Mridangam Ganesha-Orissa Paata Watercolor Painting On Tussar Silk

The adorable baala-deva (boy-deity) thumps the mridangam and dances to its sound. He is the son of Shiva-Parvati, the unmistakable elephant’s head being the most distinctive part of His iconography. On the belly of a flattened lotus bloom He dances, a foot raised above the other turned delicately sideways, as if caught in the midst of a step.