Sheshasayi Vishnu

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Something like a collage of various myths and mythical entities, the painting represents mainly Lord Vishnu lying, not reclining, on the coils of the great serpent Shesha with his consort Lakshmi massaging his feet. Typical of Mysore art style, as it prevailed in eighteenth-nineteenth centuries and is still practised, the painting makes use of enormous amount of gold, and a palette with bright colours : deep green in its various tones and deep maroon, particularly in rendering background, and various tones of magenta, bright red and deep pink for rendering costumes, conceives its figures with relatively short height, round faces with golden complexion and large open eyes, trimmed moustaches, over-size crowns, and ornamentation, whether bejeweling the figures or designing the costumes, embossed with thickly laid paints : all the features defining the painting’s stylistic distinction as a work of an artist skilled in Mysore art idiom.

The painting does not represent a specific or at least one of the known myths. Its primary focus is the representation of Lord Vishnu in one of his most usual manifestations : lying on the coils of the great serpent Shesha in the Kshirasagara, the ocean of milk, with his consort Lakshmi massaging his feet, though the painting marks certain deviations : the presence of the serpent Shesha manifests by its hoods, not by its coils; the coils being covered by a luxurious mattress he is lying on and a huge velvet bolster; the ocean of milk, usually painted as white foam-like surface has been painted as quiet green level ground in typical Mysore style. Apart, the four-armed Vishnu is not reclining as he is usually portrayed in paintings. Contrarily he is engaged in the worship of Lord Shiva performing ritual ablution of Shiva-ling by one his hands, while with the other, holding the lotus carrying Brahma on it top. The painting’s Shaivite thrust reflects also in the form of the Vishnu’s lotus garland that unknots and a part of it extends to Shiva-ling as if offering a flower at it in Shiva’s worship.

The painting represents a galaxy of divinities. Brahma has been represented as riding the lotus emerging from the navel of Vishnu. After the Great Deluge, Vishnu emerged as a child riding a fig leaf floating over the tumultuous waters of the sea. Millions of years passed when he thought of accomplishing the Creation. Soon there emerged from his navel a lotus with Brahma on it. He blessed him and commanded to commence Creation. Over the figure of Brahma there is in the sky the Moon god in crescent form and a celestial musician playing on her ‘vina’. On top left there is Lord Shiva, one beyond time and space, putting his feet in a water pot which Parvati holds, as if to relieve him of his fatigue. Towards the bottom there are two of Vishnu’s own incarnations : Narsimha and Varaha, Shri or Padmavati, a form of Lakshmi, with lotuses in her three hands, four-armed Saraswati holding in two of them her ‘vina’, and in other two, book and lotus, Vishnu’s mount the great bird Garuda, the earth in the form of a globe, and a few subordinate divinities.

There is on the Vishnu’s right sage Narada with deep black beard and ‘jatajuta’ – matted coiffure, singing hymns lauding Lord Vishnu. He is simultaneously playing on his ‘vina’. Close to him stands an enthused chowri-bearing female attendant absorbed in herself. On the top in the high skies there is the Sun god with light radiating from his face, a celestial musician playing on her ‘vina’, and a galaxy of high sages of various sects and systems engaged in austerities. More significant among the figures on the left of Lakshmi is the horse-faced Hayagriva, one of Vishnu’s own incarnations, a musician-devotee, or a king in Vaishnava line. He is holding a lyre which suggests that he is more likely the musician-devotee. Just close to Hayagriva there stands the great sage Shukadeva who narrated to king Parikshata the great Bhagavata Purana. Besides some subordinate divinities there are Rishi-kumaras – the young sages known as Kumaras, Sanat, Sanandana, Sanatan …

This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a number of books.