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.
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.
An attempt at putting together the ten avatars of Vishnu in the form of a circular clock, as a loose metaphor for the eternal cycle of time and the universe, and also representing the fact that the duty of all of the avatars was to protect the world, represented as bhooma devi.
A postcard illustration of the St.Vitus Cathedral in Prague, from my recent holiday trip there in 2015. A visit inside is well worth the ticket price. The stained glass windows are absolutely gorgeous and the massive flying buttresses outside are simply magnificent to behold.
A postcard illustration of the Colosseum in Rome, from my recent holiday to the city of Rome in 2015.
It was constructed in 72AD by the Emperor Vespasian and his successor Emperor Titus. It could hold an estimated 50000-80000 spectators.
This impressive colossus, despite undergoing a series of restorations, never fails to astound me with it’s sheer presence and absolute magnificence. What’s harder to believe that there’s as much of it still standing, despite being nearly 2000 years old.
Nothing else represents the utter descent into an absolutely decadent lifestyle like the Colosseum, as visitors would pour in from all corners of the empire to witness bloody gladiatorial tournaments, animal hunts, public executions, simulated naval battles, re-enactments of famous battles and dramas from classical mythology.
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
I was inspired by the variety and beauty of the Angels of St. Angelo’s bridge and castel from Rome to draw them as postcards.
Here I’ve just used pencils and faber castell black pens of varying thicknesses to ink/shade them.
Although he is the primary antagonist of the Ramayana, Ravana is often depicted as having many exemplary qualities.
He is the son of the sage Vishrava with the daitya princess Kaikesi, grandson of Pulastya (one of the original saptarishis, who are the mind-born sons of Brahma) and great-grandson of the creator Brahma.
He is shown to be a great scholar (having studies the 4 vedas and 6 shastras), a master of the 64 ancient vedic arts, and the creator and master of the Rudra Veena.
He is also painted in a slightly sympathetic light, having grown up during the time that the asuras were defeated in battle by the devas, where his mother marries the sage Vishrava just to have powerful children who could challenge the devas and restore the asuras to their previously lost splendor. The story also goes into detail about how Ravana was constantly overshadowed by his older step-brother Kubera and how he would see his mother constantly crying over the pitiable state of the asuras, making him take a vow of vengeance against the devas who put his mother and family in this position.
The story goes on to say that to get boons of power, he plucks off his own heads to create a new form of veena and uses his own veins as strings to play devotional songs in praise of Shiva, hoping to win the gods favor.
Called Dasagriva/Dasamukha till this point, he then acquired the name Ravana. He is then said to have gone on a roaring conquest, with the symbol of the Veena on his banner, defeating the devas in a decisive battle and dominating both the human and divine races. At the zenith of his power, it was said that he could even command the rising and setting of the sun.
According to the story, very few people could defeat him in battle for very peculiar reasons. Upon worshipping Shiva, Ravana had asked for a boon of immortality. When told that this was not possible, he instead asked to be invincible in battle against the devas, gandharvas and wild animals. He didn’t consider humans to be much of a threat and hence did not bother to ask to include them. Rama could defeat and kill him owing to this minor oversight. Certain versions of the story say that Vali, the vanara king of Kishkintha had the boon that he would gain half the strength of any enemy he faced in battle and that he was able to defeat Ravana without even being aware of it. The only other person who had defeated Ravana was Karthaveeryarjuna (the same one who antagonized Parashurama) on the banks of the Narmada river, having himself acquired divine blessings and powers.
Since drawing the actual veena with heads and veins would have been a bit gory, I opted for the traditional route of showing the ten-headed Ravana composing songs and ragas on the veena. I also thought of alternate ways of showing the ten heads of Ravana (one of his iconic traits), such as stacking them one over the other like bowling pins, or in an abstract pattern, because I really didn’t like the traditional depiction of unbalanced approach of 4 heads on one side and five on the other with one in the middle.
I also considered showing each of his faces with a different emotion [such as Kaam (lust), Krodha (anger), Moha (delusion), Lobha (greed), Mada (pride), Maatsarya (envy), Manas (the mind), Buddhi (intellect), Chitta (will) and Ahamkara (ego)], but realized that some of these were too abstract to show visually.
So until I can think of a better way of showing Ravana’s ten heads, he stays in his traditional depiction.
The character of Ravana has always been a challenge to draw, due in large part to his many arms and legs which always ends up making him look really awkward. Here’s an attempt at tackling that challenge!
Was inspired by my trip to Rome in Italy in June this year to illustrate some of the beautiful sculptures and buildings that I saw there. Sources are from Piazza Navona, St.Angelo’s Bridge, Church of St.Louis of the French and the Colosseum.
Was inspired by my trip to Prague in the Czech Republic in June this year to illustrate some of the beautiful sculptures, carvings and stained glass images that I saw. Sources are from the Charles Bridge, St.Nicholas Church, St.Vitus Cathedral and a door near the Astronomical Tower.
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 :-)
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!
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?
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.
The dance form of Bharatanatyam is as deeply engrained in Indian culture as most of the mythology is, bringing me to this interesting mix of both, where I try to combine Indian mythological characters performing Bharatanatyam steps that are in some way connected with the character’s personality or story.
The story of the Vamana is about a dwarf with an umbrella that approaches a powerful demon king and asks for 3 paces of land. The king laughs it off as a trivial request and grants this wish. Unexpectedly, the dwarf grows to a gigantic size and begins his measurement. He raises his foot impossibly high and with the first step, he covers the distance between the Earth and the Heavens. With the second step, he covers the distance between the Heavens and the Netherworld. He then raises his foot one more time, asking the king where he can measure his third pace of land. The king realizes that this is no ordinary dwarf and understands that this is an avatar of Vishnu, come to test him. Humbled and rid of his former pride and arrogance, he submits entirely and offers his own head in exchange for the promised third pace of land.
The Indian festival of Onam, celebrated in the state of Kerala, marks the commemoration of the Vamana Avatar of Vishnu and the subsequent homecoming of the mythical King Mahabali.
When looking for reference, I found this spectacular image of a Bharatanatyam dancer raising one foot to the heavens, instantly making me think of this story. An addition I made was to place an umbrella in his right hand, which is often symbolically connected with this character.
So, what do you think? Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, “Give them an inch and they take a mile,” doesn’t it?
Not deterred by our lack of golu dolls during the festival of Navaratri in Berlin, we made our own dolls with old boxes and milk cartons. (I made the Brahma doll, the one that looks like a four-faced Gandalf)
This inspired me to create a Make-it-yourself style box toy of Brahma that anyone could assemble and make for themselves.
Hope you have fun making it!
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!
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is a bit of an odd movie for me in that my parents had narrated the entire story to me many times before I actually got around to actually watch the movie myself. My dad loved watching the intense training sessions that came along with learning martial arts. My mom loved the entertaining scenes where the hero fails comically, learns a valuable lesson and then succeeds. When at last I managed to find a good print of it, we immediately put away all other distractions and watched it together.
Since then, I have watched this movie multiple times and it remains to this day my favorite Kung-fu movie for its realistic portrayal of martial arts training, depiction of the journey of personal transformation and how one man’s desire to change the world can influence his path.
(I also recently discovered that the same actor who plays the hero in this movie, Gordon Liu, also plays the martial arts teacher Pai Mei in Kill Bill Vol.2)
It was of course natural that I pay tribute to this movie with Ganesha in the iconic pose where the hero unveils his newly crafted Sanchaku or 3-part fighting sticks connected with chains. I also tried to arrange the text similar to how it appears in the movie’s posters.
And there you have it! Hope you like it!
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.