Gayatri
Gayatri is the personified form of the Gayatri mantra, the best known of all Vedic hymns. Gayatri sits on a lotus throne, with five heads of different complexions: pearl, coral, gold, sapphire and white. In her ten hands, she holds the goad, whip, skull bowl, mace, conch, discus and two lotuses, which declare her allegiance to Shiva, as does her five-faced form, which mirrors supreme forms of Mahadeva Shiva. She wears a pearl-white crescent moon, emblematic of her Lord Shiva, on her foremost crown. Each of her five crowns is golden and set with jewels and pearls, in the manner of the richest of temple crowns, worn by the gods on festival days. Gayatri is both majestic and tender, the embodiment of prana, the life breath. Her mantra, Gayatri mantra, is printed in devangari script to the lower right of the composition and the goddess’s name below the stem of the lotus.
Artwork Details
- Title: Gayatri
- Date: ca. 1890–1920
- Culture: India, Maharasthra, Pune
- Medium: Lithograph
- Dimensions: Sheet: 19 3/4 × 15 in. (50.2 × 38.1 cm)
- Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, 2020
- Object Number: 2020.19
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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Unidentified artist
1920s
India, Maharasthra, Pune
1894–99
India, Malavali, Pune
ca. 1900–10
India, Maharashtra, Pune
1886
Shinoda Tōkō
1982
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