Shri Sheshanarayana, Vishnu Narayana on Shesha

Vishnu is seen here stirring from his slumber on the entwined coils of the primordial sea snake Shesha, who raises its five-headed hood as a protective canopy. Vishnu listens to his devotee Narada, a reversed sage and divine messenger (seen at right playing a vina), while his consort, Lakshmi, massages his legs. Narada is modeled after a preeminent Bengali Vaishnava saint, Chaitanya. The god holds aloft a lotus bloom from which Brahma is born. Other attendants include the kneeling Garuda, his celestial eagle-vehicle (vahana) in human form; the loyal monkey-general Hanuman; and the horse-headed Hayagriva, the embodiment of knowledge. This conflation of figures reflects the distinctly Bengali perspective at which artists from Kolkata were so adept.