Devi Bhadrakali, Worshipped By Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, And Indra (Tantric Devi Series)

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Devi Bhadrakali is the embodiment of all that is celebrated and revered in Hindu devis. She is the supreme entity of the Shakti sect, and wife to Veerbhadra Himself. According to the Devi Bhagavata Purana, She is the one originally responsible for the dharmic cycle of creation, preservation, and destruction that pervades the whole universe. In this Basholi-style watercolour by Kailash Raj, She is depicted with the supreme devas of the Hindu pantheon in homage before Her. Her form is dusky and dynamic, as given away by the raised ankle. In Her anterior hands She holds a musical instrument; in the posterior ones, libations of blood and wine in a basin and a goblet. In Her flowing pink and purple silks and pearls-and-gold shringar, Devi Bhadrakali is replete with everything that makes the quintessential Hindu Devi what She is - beautiful, wrathful as given away by Her statement complexion, and a divine proficient.

Amidst the sun-bathed moors, the rulers of svargaloka stand before the powerful Devi with their hands folded in namaskaram. Brahma, the chaturmukha and the chaturbhuja (a kamandalu and the pothi in the posterior hands), is followed by Vishnu whose complexion gives away His Krishna avatara, Shiva in His signature loincloth and the naga wound around His neck, and finally Indra with a thousand eyes on His skin. Apart from Shiva's moon-trimmed jatamukuta, the studded gold crowns sprouting blooming pink lotuses of the entities in this watercolour are characteristic of Basholi paintings.