Umbrella

Source: Lotus Sculpture

South Indian Bronze of Shri Ganesha wearing high-rise sandals and holding umbrella and waterpot

Power and Intelligence

Madhya Pradesh

Murthis (images) of Shri Ganesha with trunk turned to His right represent the destruction of negative forces. The female figures seated on Lord Ganesha's knees are Siddhi and Buddhi. They are manifestations of the Success and Intelligence that attend an innocent person. They are qualities of Shri Ganesha, not wives or consorts; He is an Eternal Child.

Ivory

Hoysala

Hoysala, 12th-13th Century, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

The Hoysala Empire consisted of the present day South Indian state of Karnataka and parts of the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The rulers of this dynasty were great patrons of the arts. Above the crown is a stylised depiction of the Kirtimukha, or Face of Glory, a fierce being created by Lord Shiva as a protection against evil.

Pradakshina

Pradakshina is the circumambulation of a sacred image or shrine, performed in a clockwise direction (the literal meaning is 'keeping the sacred object on your right'. The right side of the body is considered more auspicious in Hindu culture). It is a symbolic act indicating that the deity is the centre of the worshipper's life, and being.

Rajasthani Painting

Detail from a Rajasthani miniature painting currently on display in the exhibition Garden and Cosmos, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

The word miniature, derived from the Latin minium, red lead, is a picture in an ancient or medieval illuminated manuscript; the simple decoration of the early codices having been miniated or delineated with that pigment. The generally small scale of the medieval pictures has led secondly to an etymological confusion of the term with minuteness and to its application to small paintings especially portrait miniatures, which did however grow from the same tradition and at least initially use similar techniques.

Ramananda Bandopadhyay