Goddess Saraswati

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Madhubani art, once a localized folk art form, has caught universal fancy due to the brilliance of color and its sheer simplicity. The art is conspicuous also because it is practised by the women. Gauging by its popularity, it is obvious that art which once adorned the walls of rural houses, has travelled on paper to the living rooms of the elite. Indian gods and goddesses are very popular with the painters. The same god will find being portrayed in numerous forms, while still retaining the basic elements.

Goddess Saraswati is the benign goddess of music and learning. Simply dressed and no jewellery to adorn her beautiful form, she holds a book, representing the Vedas, a rosary, a pot of sacred water and a veena in four hands.

A clear shift is evident in the colour palette. The usual primary colours have given way to turquoise, which is lavishly used in this work. That and yellow are pleasing to the eye. The simplicity that we talked about is endearingly present in the features in the profile of the goddess. The eye, proportionately larger than the rest of the face, is so painted to portray that nothing escapes the large eye of the goddess. Her flowing scarves cover almost the entire upper half of the painting and the white crown is simply placed behind the head. The space behind is covered with parallel rays in odd hues of red.

Saraswati’s vehicle, the peacock, is in unusual yellow and turquoise. This bird is a very popular figure in Indian art, replete with the brilliant blues and greens, but here the artist tries hard to be different. Again, the space between the bird and the border is filled with stripes of red, green and white. The entire picture is enclosed in a minutely painted border.

This description by Renu Rana.