Maa or mother is the simplest yet the most powerful address to the divine female energy, Shakti, the great goddess in Hindu culture. She begins life as Saraswati, sustains it as Lakshmi, and annihilates to bring a balance in creation as Kali. In between these three potent forms, she takes innumerable incarnations to fulfill the needs of Srishti or creation, just as a mother plays every role for her child.
Maa Shakti is the sole Dayini, provider for her devotees, who call upon her to nurture them with her life-affirming benevolence. This roopa of the mother goddess can be best envisioned as Devi Annapurna (she who provides Anna or food grain), an expansion of Parvati Amman, the wife of Shiva and the divine manifestation of Prakriti (primeval feminine energy).
Hindu textual sources tell the story of Devi Parvati, who enraged by Shiva’s disregard for food as a figment of Maya, a divine mirage that runs the universal order, disappeared from Srishti, leaving gods, humans, sages, and other life forms ravaged with hunger.
The might of Mahamaya, Maa Parvati who is the source and end of all illusions was realized by Shiva who then paid a visit to his wife residing in Kashi as Annapurna, distributing her affection and food to anyone who came to her door. This glistening Devi Annapurna Tanjore painting envisions the mother goddess in a magnificent heavenly aura, which is enhanced by the skillful employment of embossing and 24-karat gold. The goddess sits in a royal palace with its arched pillars forming a golden frame for her image.
The floor of Devi Annapurna’s palace has a silk red carpet spread on it, embellished with tiny dots and lines. A throne designed like expansive vegetation serves as the seat of the mother goddess in this Devi Annapurna Tanjore artwork. A red halo with a golden border marks the aura of the divine mother, who wears a conical crown, gold ornaments, and a sari with a paisley border and leafy vines covering its fabric.
Red and green cut glass stones are studded in the entirety of this Thanjavur painting giving it its famed aesthetic richness. In her lithesome hands, Maa Annapurna holds a golden ladle and a pot full of Kheer (milk and rice pudding) which is sweetened with her maternal affections.
A red dot on her forehead, large and lively eyes and a benevolent expression infuses this Tanjore art with Shakti’s motherly powers. The timeless pairing of gold and wood provides it with an antiquated aesthetic, settled in which Maa Annapurna showers on the devotees her ceaseless affections.
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