Indus
In this piece, I have attempted to capture the life, essence and ideals of the Indus Valley civilization. This period in our history is a very significant one, but very less is known about it. All material used as reference for this painting is still being studied and interpreted.
The two concentric beings appear to be sitting in a meditative posture (more specifically, the mula bandha/root lock). I have painted both the beings using seals found from Mohenjodaro as reference. According to one theory, the being depicted in the seal could be an early representation of Shiva as Pasupati (The lord of animals) since the being is surrounded by animals and the projectile emerging from the top of the head (of the being in the center) could be his Trishul (trident). The animals could be the vahanas (chariots) of the Dikpalas (Guardians of the four directions) namely Durga, Indra, Kuber and Yama. But according to another theory, the being could be an Asura called Mahishasura, the buffalo demon who was slain by Goddess Durga. The text written over the being along with all other text found from this period has still not been translated.
On the right is one of the oldest distillation apparatus found in the world. This too goes back to the Indus Valley period, and since this painting was made for a bar I felt this equipment belonged here. The reason I chose this period as a point of reference was because very less is known about this period, and it makes for very interesting conversations when viewers try to interpret it, because they could be right (or wrong) about their interpretations.
What fascinated me about this seal was the similarity between the face of the being and some contemporary (psychedelic) art. To me, the depiction of multiple faces marks a symbolic, even dimensional, shift in our consciousness. We humans are very visual creatures and are used to observing what is in front of us, leaving the sides and back (and practically all other directions) outside our field of view. What's interesting is that even when we imagine something with our eyes closed, the object of our imagination seems to be in front of the subject (us). So we somehow manage to retain a humanoid appearance even in our imaginative space. Thus, the symbolism of faces pointing in multiple directions represents (to me) a conquering of this limitation of being partially aware.
This artwork was commissioned by a friend of mine, and is available for viewing at Mala-Bar (32nd Avenue, Gurugram, HR, India).
