For Want Of A Pin, A Wonder Was Found

I loved reading comics from Amar Chitra Katha as a kid, featuring several characters from Indian Mythology, revered for their unending courage, determination and never-say-die attitude even in the face of impossible obstacles. They all approached their lives with an innocent and positive attitude, representing the philosophy, "Find your purpose and go after it with all your heart."

As an Illustrator who loves mythologies from all around the world, I’ve always been fascinated by all the wonderful enamel pin projects on kickstarter (having backed a few) and have always wanted to see my designs as enamel pins. Outside of art prints, people often asked me about whether I made badges, patches or pins.

After a lot of thought and deliberation, I picked out three characters who were really close to my heart. Taking inspiration from the iconic heraldic shields designs of medieval Europe and the battle flags of warriors from Indian mythology, I set out to make my first set of Enamel Pins from Indian Mythology!

Ganesha

Ganesha is the elephant-headed god, responsible for good beginnings, taking care of the small problems that would upset our life (represented by the mouse at his feet) . He is revered as the foremost amongst the Gods, and is always offered the first worship. Featured in the pin is Ganesha enjoying a delicious meal of sweets and giving his blessings to all!

Ganesha!

Hanuman

Hanuman is the monkey god of strength and courage. Featured in the pin is a scene from Hanuman’s story, where he was sent to the Himalayas to retrieve a magical herb. Upon reaching the sacred mountain peak, he found that he could not find the herb in time. As a solution, he grew to a giant size, uprooted the entire mountain and flew back with it.

Hanuman!

Garuda

Garuda is the eagle god of the skies. Pictured here is a scene from Garuda’s story, where he was tasked to travel to the realm of the Gods and retrieve the nectar of immortality in order to liberate his mother from slavery, which was guarded by a fiery wheel and two poisonous snakes.

Garuda!

Kickstarter

Initially, I researched several UK based pin manufacturers who could make the pins, the backing cards and the plastic sleeves. However, I found all of these to be very cost prohibitive.

After a lot of asking around, I started researching enamel pin manufacturers on Alibaba and found several really good ones from China, who were all very professional in their setup and process. I shortlisted five based on the quality of pictures they had posted and sent them my designs, asking for a cost/time estimate. Out of all that responded, I went with the one who had the cheapest quote and responded the fastest. This turned out to be the best decision ever, as the pins were all perfectly made with no flaws in any of them!

The Kickstarter project was a very magical experience. It was wonderful seeing so many people, both friends and strangers, come forward to support my little project and help get these enamel pins made! Their heartwarming love and generosity encourages me want to do more and more things that delight me and others like me!

I made a lot of friends in the industry, all of whom were running similar enamel pin projects on kickstarter at the same time, by trading and exchanging my creations with them.

The Design Process

The design process from rough sketch to vectorizing in Illustrator to final pin production

My First Kickstarter Project: Golu Boxdolls!

My first Kickstarter Project, making Papercraft Golu Boxdolls from Indian Mythology

Mahabharata War - The 14th Day

The Story

The 13th day of battle between the Pandavas and Kauravas in the epic Mahabharata has just come to an end. While Arjuna was distracted on the far side of the battlefield, the Kaurava forces lured his son Abhimanyu into their Chakravyuha (Wheel-Formation) and brutally killed him. The Pandava forces were unable to follow Abhimanyu into the formation due to the insurmountable defense of the Sindhu King Jayadratha.

Burning with rage, Arjuna makes a terrible promise: To kill Jayadratha before sunset the next day or to kill himself. This sets the stage for the most epic battle of the entire war: The 14th Day.

The Kaurava Commander-in-Chief Dronacharya has assembled his forces into three battle formations. First is the square and solid Shakatavyuha (Cart Phalanx). Behind this is the Padmavyuha (Lotus-Formation), positioning himself at its head. Lastly, near the base of the lotus, he arranges the most powerful Kaurava warriors straight as a needle (Suchivyuha) with the precious Jayadratha at the eye of the needle.

15 Kilometers separate Arjuna from his target: A hundred thousand horsemen, Sixty thousand chariots, three million foot soldiers, fourteen thousand elephants, and then six supreme warriors.

And so begins Arjuna’s glorious and terrible quest. With his golden chariot and four white horses ready, Krishna takes their chariot forward into the enemy’s cart formation. Warriors attack him from all directions but Arjuna has no patience for them. He draws his bow and waves of enemy warriors fall.

Taking apart the cart formation, their chariot storms the edge of the lotus formation, where they encounter Dronacharya. They duel for hours with no end in sight, so Krishna quickly takes their chariot around and avoid further confrontation with the Acharya.

They forge ahead deeper into the lotus formation, encountering Kritavarma, Duryodhana and many other Kaurava warriors. But today, Arjuna appears to be the God of Death incarnate and smashes through the last petals of the lotus formation, breaking it apart entirely.

The powerful warriors of the needle formation surround Arjuna. Bhoorisravas, Karna, Ashwatthama, Kripacharya, Shalya and others attack Arjuna simultaneously.

In the mean time, Dronacharya tries to capture Yudhistira. His efforts are thwarted by Bheema and Satyaki.

Fending off several attacks, Krishna expertly guides Arjuna through the sea of enemy warriors. His eyes are constantly watching the west and Arjuna catches the message that there is little time to waste.

Then suddenly, darkness sets across the battlefield. The enemy warriors start cheering at their victory and let down their guard. Krishna assures Arjuna that this is an illusion and instructs him to act. Arjuna invokes the power bestowed by Shiva and fires a flaming arrow from his bow, beheading Jayadratha in one swift strike.

Before the enemy forces could protest at this treachery, the clouds part and the last rays of the blood-red sun bathe the battlefield.

Arjuna has fulfilled his vow.

The battle however did not stop at sunset as it had on the previous days. Under the blanket of night, the soldiers lit torches and continued fighting. Being of Rakshasa descent, Bheema’s young son Gatotkacha becomes more powerful under the cover of darkness and rains terror upon the enemy forces.

Desperate to curb the violent destruction of their army, the Kaurava warrior Karna invokes his divine Shakti weapon, which he had been saving to use exclusively against Arjuna, and hurls it with all his might at Gatotkacha. Realizing what is about to happen, Gatotkacha grows to an enormous size. The Shakti lights up the night sky and crashes into the giant Gatotkacha. He falls upon the Kaurava army like a mountain and crushes thousands of them underneath.

And so ends the 14th day of the Mahabharata battle.

Philosophy of the Formations

In direct contrast to the Crescent Moon formation used by the Pandavas on the previous day, the 14th day channels the anger and rage of Arjuna into the laser sharp focus of the Eagle formation as it hunts for its prey, powerfully tearing through all obstacles and challenges in its path and keeping its eye only on its intended target.
In various mythologies, Eagles were often depicted as being very old and wise creatures, such as in the tales of Garuda or in Celtic folktales. They are also strong allies in The Lord of the Rings, rescuing Gandalf from his prison atop Isengard and later coming to the aid of Frodo and Sam when all hope seems lost. Eagle feathers represent courage and bravery in various cultures, where they are used to adorn clothing or headgear. The symbols of the Roman and German empires were both eagles. The eagle is also now prominently featured in the American iconography.
The Kauravas on the other hand, try a combination of three different formations: The Cart, the Lotus and the Needle.
Carts in mythology take many interesting forms. The Gordian knot was a chariot in ancient Greece tied to a post with an impossible knot, which Alexander the great undid by simply cutting through the rope, foretelling his ability to find innovative solutions to complex problems.
The lotus on the other hand, represented the Sun and rebirth in ancient Egyptian cultures, owing to its behavior of closing up at night and almost receding into the water. In buddhism, the lotus represents spiritual awakening, owing to its ability to repel the marshy waters in which it grows and remain clean. In Hindu philosophy, the primordial lotus grows from Vishnu's navel and represents the birth of time and the creation of the universe. Greek mythology had an island of lotus-eaters who would consume a narcotic and remain in a state of apathy to the rest of the world.
And lastly the needle, which has an odd place in mythology. The spinning needle curses a princess to sleep for an eternity when she accidentally pricks herself in the story of Sleeping Beauty. The needle and spinner are also used by Rumplestiltzkin to spin straw into gold for the princess in exchange for her firstborn child.
Taking all of this symbolism into account, we could form an image in our minds of the Kauravas making a desperate promise to protect Jayadratha, trying to throw out seemingly impossible challenges at Arjuna and trying to keep him distracted and away from his true goal.

The Map of the Battlefield

Mahabharata War - The 13th Day

Inspiration

It has been a long-time dream of mine to illustrate some part of the great Kurukshetra war features so prominently in the Indian epic Mahabharata.

The war, which takes place over a span of 18 days, covers nearly one-third of the entire epic and yields in-depth details about the preparations for the war, the big players, the battle formations and the epic encounters.

Chief amongst my fascinations were the banners that flew atop each hero's chariot, sort of like a pirate ship or naval armada flying their colors of allegiance.

The second angle of my fascination comes from my love of strategy videogames such as Age of Empires 2, Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and Warcraft 3, which represent giant armies from a top-down view.

The third inspiration came from the descriptions of the armies in the Mahabharata. The text goes into detail explaining that the units of warfare such as the Footman (Padha), Horseman (Ashwa), Chariot (Ratha) and Elephant (Gaja) formed the foundation of the strategy game Chaturanga which later evolved into the modern game of Chess.

The last part of my inspiration came from a visit to the German History Museum here in Berlin, where I saw a shield that was presented to the King, painted with the various sigils of the houses that stood in support of his rule.

And with this final piece of inspiration in hand, I set off with my drawing.

Research

I spent a lot of time researching the heroes, their banners, their armies and the various battle formations they employed. There were some cases where I just wasn't able to find any specifics and had to take a bit of artistic license in interpreting the information. Here's what I found:

The Kurukshetra war was fought between the forces of the Pandavas (5 brothers, sons of Pandu) and the Kauravas (100 brothers, sons of Dritharashtra) over a dispute of who had the right to rule the kingdom.
The sizes of the armies were measured in a unit called an Akshauhini, which consisted of a combination of forces in the ratio 1 Elephant: 1 Chariot: 3 Horsemen: 5 Footmen multiplied by a factor of 21870
The skill level of a warrior was scaled as follows: Rathi (capable of fighting 5000 warriors at once), Athirathi (capable of fighting 12 Rathis or 60000 warriors), Maharathi (capable of fighting 12 Athirathis or 720000 warriors)
The Pandava army was composed of 7 Akshauhinis
The Kaurava army was composed of 11 Akshauhinis

The Story

Despite being massively outnumbered, the Pandava army has a secret weapon who goes by the name of Arjuna. This Pandava warrior is clearly the hero of the war. He features prominently in a vast portion of the battles and rallies everyone behind him with his feats of skill in warfare.

After 12 days of intense bloodshed, the realize that the best way to end the war swiftly is to distract Arjuna and capture the eldest Pandava brother Yudhistira. And so they enlist the aid of the Samsapthaka armies of Trigartha and the Narayani Sena of the Yadavas to challenge Arjuna and drag him out to a remote part of the battlefield. The Kaurava commander-in-chief Dronacharya, then employs the Chakravyuha or the Wheel battle formation, since it was rumored that only Arjuna knew the secret of entering and breaking it.

The confounded and desperate Pandava forces first try a counter-attack through the Crescent Moon formation but then turn to Arjuna's young son Abhimanyu, who knew the secret of entering the Chakravyuha but knew not how to exit or break the formation. With strong reassurances from the other Pandava heroes that they would follow him and give him support, Abhimanyu set forth entering the maze-like rotating wheel formation.

However, the Pandava forces are halted by the insurmountable defense of Jayadratha, the king from Sindh, and are unable to follow the young prince.

Trapped away from his army and with no escape route in sight, Abhimanyu strengthens his resolve and goes on a rampage, defeating many enemy heroes and decimating a vast array of Kaurava forces. In the end, feeling like they set a trap for a kitten and caught a lion instead, the desperate Kaurava forces surround Abhimanyu on all sides, abandon all rules of chivalrous warfare and succeed in killing him.

There are three direct consequences to this:
- All the rules of chivalry and ethics of warfare are completely abandoned
- The death of Abhimanyu spurs the noble Pandavas onward to finish the fight by any means necessary
- It sets up an even more epic 14th day of battle, with Arjuna swearing a terrible oath to kill Jayadratha or end his own life

Philosophy of the Formations

The Moon has very many symbolic meanings in different cultures of the world. The Waning Moon represents surrender, contemplation and meditation. The New Moon represents new beginnings and rebirth. The Waxing Moon represents growth and manifestation. The Full Moon represents clarity and fulfillment.
In this case, the crescent moon takes on a very special meaning. Having two tips, it could represent for the Pandavas, a lack of desire to tackle their problem head-on and instead trying to circumvent it somehow. They were always hesitant about fighting with their cousins, relatives and teachers, and constantly doubting whether they were doing the right thing. This strong desire to avoid the primary conflict led to the death of Abhimanyu, which in turn had a dramatic impact on the course of the battle as well as the formation used by the Pandavas the very next day.
The Kauravas on the other hand, utilized the Chakravyuha or an ever-twisting snake-like circular maze formation. The ancient Egyptian and Greek philosophers viewed the world as a constant cycle of life-death, creation-destruction and imagined it as an Ouroboros, the snake swallowing its own tail. In Alchemy, the Ouroboros is associated with the Philosopher's Stone, which is said to hold the secret to immortal life. In Norse mythology, this takes the form of the world-snake Jörmungandr, which grew so large that it could encircle the entire world and hold its tail between its teeth. Jörmungandr was also foretold to bring about Ragnorok, or the end of the world and the destruction of the Gods. In Vedic philosophies, it is believed that the power of the Kundalini lies coiled like a snake holding its own tail.
This symbolism could be taken to imply that the Kauravas strongly believed that they were going to bring about the destruction of the God-like Pandavas and award themselves eternal glory by winning this battle.

Pandava Forces

Yudhistira - Crescent Moon with 5 Planets

Bheema - Golden Lion with Sapphire Eyes

Arjuna - Hanuman

Nakula - Red Antelope

Sahadeva - White Swan

Satyaki - Yali

Ghatotkacha - Wheel

Krishna - Garuda

Drishtadyumna - Fire Altar

Shikandi - Flower

Drupada - Vajra

Virata - Matsya Fish

Abhimanyu - Golden Karnikara Tree

Pandava Tent

Hastinapur

Ashwa

Gaja

Padha

Ratha

Kaurava Forces

Bheeshma - Palm Tree with 5 Stars

Drona - Beggar Bowl & Bow

Karna - Sun

Kripa - Bull

Dusshasana - Mace

Duryodhana - Cobra

Ashwatthama - Lion Tail

Shalya - Spears

Bhagadatta - Elephant

Bhurisravas - Lotus

Shakuni - Owl with Dice

Jayadratha - Horse

Kritavarma - Helmet

Susharman - Pearl

Kaurava Tent

Ashwa

Gaja

Padha

Ratha

The End Result

Garuda's Life

The Character

Garuda is the great eagle mount of Vishnu. His name means one he is capable of lifting great weights and moving very fast. He is named thus by hermits who are hanging upside down on a tree branch. When the great winged deity sat on the branch to eat a elephant and tortoise, the branch broke, but Garuda quickly snatched the branch from the air despite already carrying a heavy load.

The Story

After defeating the devas and taking their divine nectar, the mighty bird Garuda doesn't taste even a drop of it, because he's trying to use it to buy his mother's freedom from the nagas. An amazed Indra (King of the Devas) goes to Garuda, asks to be his friend and enquires about the extent of his strength.

To this, Garuda narrates his story. The sage Kashyapa had two wives, Vinata and Kadru, daughters of Daksha Prajapati, who was the son of Brahma. Through divine boons, Kadru asked for a thousand snakes for children and Vinata asked for just two, who would surpass all others in their glory. Kadru's snakes were born quickly. In her impatience, Vinata broke open one of her eggs to reveal a half-formed child who later became Aruna, the charioteer of Surya. Vinata then lost a foolish bet with Kadru and thus became her slave. It was then that Garuda burst forth from his egg with divine splendor. Learning of his mother's fate, he made a deal with the nagas to bring back the nectar of immortality from the heavens where the Devas guarded it fiercely. He defeated their entire army, quenched a wall of raging flames, surpassed an ever-spinning bladed discus, fought off poisonous serpents and retrieved the nectar.

He then explains that on each of his feathers he could carry the entire Earth with all of its contents and Indra himself on top of it.

The Art

The part of the story where Garuda explains his strength to Indra always fascinated me in an Atlas sort of fashion (except that Atlas carries the heavens and not the Earth). This inspired me to show Garuda in the place of Atlas, shouldering a globe which contained in it his entire life story.

Hope you like it!

‪#‎garuda‬ ‪#‎illustration‬ ‪#‎mythology‬ ‪#‎art‬ ‪#‎cosmology‬

Agni

Agni, the God of Fire

In Indian mythology, Agni was considered to be the messenger of the gods, linking the earth to the heavens, conveying all the mortal offerings to the gods. Agni was instrumental in all rituals in the vedic period, with priests performing a Yagna with fire to invoke the blessings of the gods. Agni was considered at once, the devourer and purifier of all things with his seven tongues of flame.

Agni was also identified with the sun god Aditya as the giver of life and sustenance. Agni was also considered to be timeless and immortal because fire can always be rekindled and rejuvenated even after it goes out.

Just like the story of Prometheus, when fire came to be domesticated for use in cooking, warming or metallurgy, fire acquired a trinity of personalities: that of the domestic fire that serves mankind, that of the forest fire that roams free and that of the heavenly fire that connects mankind with the heavens by carrying their offerings during ceremonies or burning the dead and carrying their souls to heaven.

The constellation of the Krithika or the Pleidas was associated with Agni. According to the epic poem ‘Kumarasambhava’, along with the 6 celestial Krithika maidens, Agni was instrumental in the birth of the War God Karthikeya.

Agni was also associated with the human physiology and Ayurveda, with the stomach being considered a furnace which consumes nutrients and transmits energy to the rest of the body.

The sanskrit root for Agni oddly sounds similar to the latin root for the same word ‘Ignios’, both implying the 3 forms of fire, lightning and the sun, giving it the meaning ‘that which shines forth’. As a result, fire is associated with time, protection, hunger, anger and knowledge.

Agni in indian mythology is depicted as a red, two-faced being, with seven hands, three legs and seven fiery tongues to lick the sacrificial butter. He rides a ram or a chariot drawn by fiery horses.

When it came to drawing Agni, I stuck to the simplest aspects of him, with 2 faces and 7 hands, wielding a fiery lance, emerging from the sacrificial fire and carrying the offerings to the heavens.

Arjuna & Shiva

The Story

The Kiratarjuniya is a sanskrit epic poem written by Bharavi in the 6th Century AD, describing the interaction between Arjuna and lord Shiva in the guise of a kirata or mountain-dwelling hunter.

The poem is set during the period of forest exile of the Pandavas within the story Mahabharata. Facing the prospect of war against the Kauravas at the end of their exile, Arjuna is advised by the sage Vyasa to seek divine weapons. Reminded of the humiliation that his brothers and his wife Draupadi faced during the dice game where they lose their entire kingdom, Arjuna decides to perform an austere penance.

Arjuna is guided by a yaksha to the Indrakila mountains near the present-day region of Vijaywada and prays to Shiva. Here, Arjuna endures the hardships of the weather and overcomes many temptations, standing steadfast in his goal.

Pleased with his penance, Shiva decides to test his valor by appearing as a hunter, with both of them shooting a wild boar simultaneously and arguing over who shot first. Upon realizing that he is unable to win, Arjuna at last recognizes Shiva and surrenders to him. Shiva then grants him the powerful Pashupatastra, whose descriptions parallel that of a modern day thermo-nuclear weapon.

The Myth

I think of This episode from the Mahabharat as a transitionary period. Until this point in the story, the main characters of the story (the 5 Pandava brothers) have had a moderately comfortable upbringing, survived treachery via the burning wax palace courtesy of their cousins, had their new kingdom handed to them on a silver platter by their uncle the king, cultivated the land with the help of Krishna and Balarama, built a fabulous palace with the help of the architect Mayavi, lost the entire kingdom in a game of dice and been exiled for 13 years in the forest.

They interactions have been only with other human characters so far and have only been accumulating either moral teachings or alliances with other kingdoms through marriage.

This is the first divine encounter that they actively seek out that also manifests in the form of a tangible object they can make use of. (I’m not counting their meetings with Krishna since an Avatar is a bit of a complicated person who is sometimes considered either wholly divine, wholly mortal, a bit of both, or neither). Considering that Arjuna receives an enormously powerful weapon that he is immediately warned to never use due to its terrible effects, and the fact that the weapon is never mentioned again for the rest of the epic leads us to question the purpose of this episode.

Is it to tell us that the Pandavas were righteous by divine ordnance? Or is it just a confidence boost for Arjuna to have an unusable powerful weapon in his quiver, just like he has Krishna on his chariot in the battlefield? Or is it to mirror the adventures of his brother Bhima meeting Hanuman or Yudhisthira meeting the crane who turns out to be a Yaksha who turns out to be his father Yamadharmaraja, the god of death and divine justice, which also serve as lessons in humility and wisdom? Perhaps all of these and perhaps none.

The Drawing

When it came to drawing the piece, I made Shiva seem like a giant bestowing an enormous weapon capable of tearing apart the very fabric of the universe to the tiny insect-like Arjuna to show the parity in stature between them.

For the border, I was inspired by the story of the river/celestial maiden Ganga (who is trapped in Shiva’s matted hair) riding a mythical creature called a Makara (which is a half-elephant/half-ram, half-fish type of creature, which is also the zodiac equivalent of Capricorn)

And for the border’s border, I decided to put a composite statue of Nandi, which is the bull that serves as Shiva’s ride.

The 10 Avatars

The Ten Avatars

We all know the common story about the ten avatars that the Indian God Vishnu takes to protect the world, but more on that in just a minute.

When I was making a drawing of Ravana, I wanted to originally draw him with ten hands playing the Veena. But ten hands for one instrument seemed excessive. So I thought I’d make each hand play a separate instrument, but that looked a bit awkward. Then I had a flash of an image with something related to each of the ten avatars of Vishnu in Ravana’s ten hands. While that made an interesting image, that made no sense at all. Why would Ravana of all people pay homage to Vishnu’s avatars? And then it hit me, I could just draw a ten-armed Vishnu with each arm paying homage to each of the ten avatars.

And so I started off sketching the figure and the various arms, but then I hit upon another problem. Seven of the avatars were human or humanoid and could have arms, but the first three were animals. How was I supposed to have meaningful arms for these?

This I sort of managed to address by giving them humanoid-like hands or just using their limbs as-is.

Then came the dilemma of how to make each hand unique enough to be identifiable. So here’s what I did from the last avatar backwards:
Kalki-sword in hand
Krishna-considered chakra but settled on flute
Balarama-plough
Rama-bow
Parashurama-axe
Vamana-umbrella
Narasimha-was a bit of a puzzle, because the avatar doesn’t hold anything, the nails are supposed to be the weapons. Briefly considered intestines of Hiranyakashipu but felt that would be too gory
Varaha-this one was a little challenging since this was essentially a wild boar whose hand isnt supposed to be articulate. The story has the wild boar carrying the earth to safety on its snout so I settled on the earth on its hoof.
Kurma-this was even more challenging since a tortoise’s hand is even less articulate. In the story, the tortoise carries the mountain Mandhara on its mountain, so I settled on a tortoise arm carrying a mountain.
Matsya-this was the most challenging, since fish have no hands and I didn’t want to make a tentacled cthulu-esqe monster. In the end I settled on a mer-man type arm to give the semblance of an aquatic creature carrying the vedas that were stolen by the demon Hayagriva from Brahma.

Then came another dilemma - some count Balarama as one of the ten avatars and some count Buddha as one of the ten avatars. Which would I follow? In the end I decided upon Balarama because his plough-in-hand was a lot more interesting visually.

The Mother Wolf of Rome

A statue of the mother wolf that is said to have taken care of the infants Romulus and Remus, who later became the founders of the city of Rome

Krishna Avatar

In Bharatanatyam, Krishna is often shown in this common pose of standing with crossed legs and holding a flute. Usually the cows are grazing or gopis are dancing in the background, enjoying the divine music of his flute. It’s a fairly simple and very iconic image.

His brother Balarama, holding a plough, is often associated with agriculture. According to the story, Balarama once called Yamuna to come to him, but when she refused, he hooked her hair with his plough and dragged her to where he was. I suppose this is metaphorical of revolutionary irrigation techniques involving damming or redirecting river waters for agriculture.

Krishna is strongly associated with animal husbandry, where the cows were said to give more milk just by listening to his flute.

Together, Krishna and Balarama form the duality of the agricultural revolution. They represent a shift from the Vedic beliefs, where the deities Indra and Varuna were worshipped for rain/water, to a state of self reliance and better harnessing the natural resources of land and water. It also represented a shift of mentality in working towards what you wanted instead of waiting for some divine sign or intervention.

Stories within the Mahabharat tell us that when Krishna suggests that the villagers stop worshipping unseen forces like Indra to nurture the known forces of the surrounding environment, he was met with strong resistance to this shift of thought, evidenced by Indra thundering his anger upon the villagers via torrential rains and Krishna protecting the townsfolk under the Govardhana hill.

This sort of “harness/develop your natural resources” attitude is evident once more when Krishna and Balarama help the Pandavas convert the dense forests/arid deserts of Khandavaprastha into the fertile cultivable/livable land of Indraprastha.

Most animals choose to adapt to the environment they are placed in and either die out if the environment has drastic changes or are forced to re-adapt once again. Few animals come to mind that shape their own environment. One is the beaver, which is also MIT’s mascot, is considered to be the Engineer of the natural world owing to its ability to build dams and reshape its eco-system. Another is the termite, which builds giant mounds to help regulate temperature and water.

So, what are the resources sitting unused around you? What are you going to do about them? How have you shaped your environment to better suit your needs?

Isn’t that the true meaning of Engineering?

Here’s another post in the series of “How did I draw that?”. I have tried combining my neat flowchart skills with my messy drawing style (I’m told it’s a terrible combination). But I hope this sheds some more light on the process :-)

Questions of the Yaksha

During the exile of the Pandava brothers in the forest after their loss in the game of dice, Yudhishtira finds all of his brothers dead/with their spirits trapped next to a lake by a stork who owns the lake. They have been trapped as punishment for drinking water without the stork’s permission.

The stork (which reveals itself to be a Yaksha, a subterranean dweller and hoarder of wealth), then proceeds to ask questions to Yudhishtira about the nature of life, the universe and everything in it (way before the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy decided to tackle the subject).

The story often puts Yudhishtira in moral dilemmas where he is often forced to choose between an option which will require him to bend/break the rules and help his family but will make him look bad vs. an option which will require him to follow the rules and hurt his entire family but would make him look good. As a result, we often find him sitting and analyzing the intricacies of what the morally right thing to do is, always fearful of doing something rash instead of taking necessary action.

This incident appears to be the turning point for Yudhishtira where his brothers have been incapacitated and he has to logically come out of the problem on his own. And for the first time in the epic, when forced with a life or death situation, when pushed to act and make a decision, he is able to understand the meaning behind the sufferings his family undergoing, review the events of his life dispassionately, reflect on his duty, gain renewed drive and purpose and solve the problem on his own.

Only in the end does the stork reveal itself to be Yudhishtira’s father Yamadharmaraja, the god of death and justice. This dialogue is called ‘Yaksha Prashna’ or the questions of the Yaksha.

Here are the last three questions that really make you think.

Q: What is the biggest wonder?
A: Day after day countless people die, yet those who remain either believe themselves to be immortal or cannot accept death. What greater wonder can there be?

Q: What is the correct path?
A: Arguments can lead to no certain conclusion. The srutis are all different from one another. There is not even one Rishi whose opinion can be accepted by all. The truth about Dharma and Duty is hidden inside our hearts, therefore that alone is the path that the great have followed.

Q: What is the eternal news?
A: This world full of ignorance is like a pan. The sun is the fire, the days and nights are the fuel. The seasons are the wooden ladle. Time is the cook that is cooking all creatures with these aids. This is the eternal news.

As a design, I chose to show this in contrasting colors of dark purple signifying night with the four brothers trapped as four orange flames, burning and crying out for help at the base of the tree where the stork resides, something that is especially apt considering the last question. The stork with it’s wings spread against the moon is very reminiscent of a Dracula-like figure who is both intelligent and dangerous.

I considered making a drawing with the questions and answers in them, but realized that a lot of the answers are not simple riddles, they are very metaphorical in nature and translating them into appropriate imagery would be quite challenging!

The Dance of Rama

Learning about the various Bharatanatyam hand gestures, I saw a combination that represented Rama, with the left hand closed in a fist but with the thumb extended upwards and the right hand folded as if holding an arrow.

I was inspired to draw ‘Rama in Exile’ as the character of Rama himself performing the bharatanatyam dance, depicting the hand/body gestures of himself. I added a bow, arrow and quiver to make it a little more descriptive. Since this is a time of Rama’s life when he’s not in the palace and he’s forced to live as a hermit in a forest, I’ve always found it hard to believe that he’d be neat and cleanly shaved. Hence I gave him matted hair and a beard to indicate that he has isolated himself from civilization and is living amidst the ascetics and wild animals.

In this drawing he’s not shooting at anything in particular, but perhaps I’ll add something in, like the hunt for the golden deer or watching over the monkey kings Vaali and Sugreeva fighting for the throne of Kishkintha.

During this sketch, I realized that I was drawing more characters from the Dashavatar (or the ten Avatars of Vishnu), I added the discus and conch shell over his shoulders to signify that it’s an Avatar or part of a potential series. This also made me think about Rama’s status within the epic of the Ramayana itself. Some parts indicate that everyone knew about his avatar status, such as when Vishwamitra takes him around to commit divine deeds such as the slaying of the Rakshasas that destroy hermitages or the liberation of Ahalya from her stone prison or the breaking of Shiva’s bow to marry Sita or Hanuman’s unconditional, undying devotion and love. Some parts indicate that Rama knew that he was an avatar such as when he invokes Varuna to cross the ocean and everyone is surprised to see him, or when he agrees to be exiled to the forest foreseeing a divine plan but everyone around him is deeply troubled by this decision. Some parts indicate that nobody knew about Rama’s avatar status, including Rama himself, because he feels pain, anguish and misery at Sita’s abduction and wanders the forest aimlessly while searching for her.

Thinking about Rama’s status in the epic also makes us think about what we can learn from him. There is little we can learn from Rama the God, because Gods can do unbelievable things that no man can do and their story is more like a fantasy epic. There is much to learn from Rama the Man, because it shows us that even in the worst of circumstances, if one is clear about what one wants from life, then all problems can be conquered or outlasted. Lastly, it is very difficult to learn from Rama the Enlightened Man, because he seems to make choices that no normal man would ever dare to make and he always thinks about the good of the Realm, the family and legacy above his own personal good.

So, what do you think?

Mohiniyattam

This is a popular dance form from the Indian state of Kerala, with the main theme being love and devotion to the Indian deity Vishnu. Mohiniyattam literally means ‘The Dance of the Enchantress’.

The character of Mohini is said to be an avatar of Vishnu, associated with two specific stories.
Story1 - Vishnu appears in the form of the Enchantress Mohini to trick the demons out of their share of the Nectar of Immortality (Amrit) which they obtain by churning the Ocean of Milk.
Story2 - Vishnu also takes the form of Mohini to save Shiva from a demon called Bhasmasura. Bhasmasura had procured a blessing from Shiva that anyone upon whose head he lay his hand would burn to ashes. Bhasmasura then decided to test this on Shiva himself, causing Shiva to run away in horror. Mohini intercepts them and challenges the demon to a dance contest with the prize being the chance to wed her. The demon follows Mohini’s every dance move until Mohini places her hand over her own head. The demon follows suit and places his hand atop his own head, burning him to ashes.

When reading into the history and mythology of various Indian classical dances, I was quite fascinated by the stories behind this dance form and was inspired to draw it.

For this drawing, I decided to place a Mohiniyattam dancer beside a demon with a fiery hand trying to mimic her every movement, ending with placing his hand atop his own head, leading to his own fiery demise. I considered adding Shiva hiding behind a tree somewhere in the background but it seemed to disturb the balance of the piece so I relegated it for another time.

These past few weeks I’ve been asked quite a bit about how I draw, so here’s my first attempt at demystifying the process :-)
If folks like this, perhaps I’ll share more step-by-step images!

Narasimha & Bharatanatyam

Narasimha is a half-man and half-lion avatar taken by Vishnu to defeat the demon king Hiranyakashipu. The story goes that the demon king had been blessed with a boon that he couldn’t be killed by anything that was born, or any man or any animal, or by any instrument living or dead, in day or night, in the earth or in the sky, indoors or outdoors.

The parameters of the demon king arise at twilight, when Narasimha emerges from a shattered pillar with a terrifying roar in this monstrous form. The creature which is neither man nor animal drags the demon king to the threshold of the house, places him on his lap and tears him apart with his claws.

When going through dance poses from Bharatanatyam, I came across one that seemed to emulate the rage and fury of this avatar perfectly, while also combining the grace and beauty of the dance form itself. My first draft had more oranges and reds, but I wanted to find a subtler way of showing the mood. Hence I settled on an ashen tone for his skin with the violent reds and oranges in his clothes and mane.

Hanuman & Kathakali

The story of the Kalyanasaugandhika from the Mahabharat is set during their 13 year exile in the forests. One day, a beautiful flower with an intoxicating smell wafts on the wind and falls near Draupadi. Fascinated by this flower (called the Kalyanasaugandhika), she asks Bhima to go in that direction and bring back more such flowers. During his travel, Bhima goes through a banana grove where he meets his elder brother Hanuman (the wind god is their common father) and learns a lesson in humility. Bhima then goes on to retrieve the flowers.

When I learned that the Kalyanasaugandhikam was a very popularly depicted story in the Kathakali dance form in Kerala, I realized that this was an excellent opportunity to depict Hanuman himself as the Kathakali performer. The colors are relatively muted when compared with regular Kathakali costumes but they have a charm of their own.

I also discovered that the face paint color in Kathakali is based on the character portrayed.

Heroic characters use predominantly green in their facepaint (like Krishna or Arjuna).
A green-red combination is used for a charming or mischievous characters.
Completely red facepaint with a red beard is used for demons or very fierce characters.
Hunters and woodsmen are depicted with predominantly black facepaint and a black beard.
Women usually have yellow/golden facepaint.
Characters who are noble but have an angry side to them like Shiva or Balarama or Bhima who are depicted with an orange facepaint.
Characters with dangerous dispositions also have a knife design painted on their face, like a black knife for Yama or a red knife for Ravana.
Variations occur for characters like Hanuman who is depicted with a white beard which represents very noble characters.

Shiva & Parvati

Shiva and Parvati as the cosmic dancers, their rhythmic movements representing the motion of the entire universe, signifying the union of time, energy, space and consciousness.

Shiva in the form of Nataraja is the patron of Bharatanatyam in India. It was only logical that I extend participation in the dance to his wife Parvati/Shakti. I put Shiva in an advanced Bharatanatyam pose I saw and Parvati in her traditional Kamakshi/Meenakshi pose with a symbolic parrot in her hand. In addition, Parvati is generally depicted with green skin in this form, hence her unique look here.

Ananthasayana or the Eternal Cosmic Dreamer

Stories tell us that Vishnu has a complexion of dark water-filled clouds and reclines atop a thousand headed snake in the Ocean of Milk. In his dream, a lotus grows out of his navel, out of which is born Brahma, who then creates the rest of the universe. (It’s very Inception like). His name comes from a root that means ‘Settling/Pervading’ which gives it the meaning of ‘All pervading or Omnipresent one’. His snake is called Aadhisesha or Ananthasesha, where Sesha means ‘Remainder’, ‘Aadhi’ means beginning and ‘Anantha’ is derived from the root which means ending, hence giving his name the meaning ‘That which exists even when all else ceases to exist’.

I was very inspired by my previous Nataraja drawing to try and represent this in the form of a Bharatanatyam dancer showing the Ananthasayana, except in this case the dancer is a 4 armed Vishnu himself, with one hand representing the snake sheltering him, one hand showing that he is reclining and resting, another hand holding his conch-shell ‘Panchajanya’ which represents the vibration of the universe and the last hand holding his discus ‘Sudarshan Chakra’ which represents either time or divine insight.

In usual depictions of this pose, he also holds a mace ‘Kaumodaki’ representing Justice, and a lotus ‘Padma’ representing the Universe. Since my main focus here was to bring out the Bharatanatyam aspect of the pose and I already had a lotus, I decided to skip them. Also missing in this pose are his consort: Lakshmi and his vehicle: Garuda, both of whom I skipped because I wasn’t sure how to depict them in Bharatanatyam forms (I consider both as characters and not accessories). Perhaps next time?

Something that struck me from a Project Management perspective when I saw this was that while Brahma is creating the Universe, he originates from Vishnu’s dream. Similarly, while it is a Product Manager who provides requirements to the Developers, he has to constantly take inputs from the dream or vision of the Business Stakeholders for his requirements and has to be monitored closely.

The story of Ganga’s descent from the heavens says that Ganga came in answer to Bhagirata’s prayers in order to cleanse his ancestors of their sins and ensure that they all go to heaven. But it was also deemed that she was too fierce and powerful to descend directly upon the earth. And so Shiva volunteers to take the full force of her descent into his matted hair where she spirals through his labyrinthian locks and is released as a steady and more manageable stream. Apsaras are often associated with River Spirits as is the nature of rivers to descend from the sky in the form of rain, reside for a short duration on earth in the form of lakes or rivers and in the end rejoin the ocean or return to the skies.

On a work side, this sort of reminds me of a Scrum Master/Product Manager taking up the responsibility of the entire set of product/delivery requirements, is able to make sense of what’s important/urgent and what’s not and breaks them down into smaller and more manageable pieces of work for the Scrum Team to process.

On the design side, I decided to skew the proportions a bit and make a really huge Ganga descend upon a much smaller Shiva to try and convey the magnitude of the problem he was trying to control. And since these two are the core focus of the piece, I left the background black to avoid any unwanted distractions.