This magnificent marble statue, rare alike in its aesthetic beauty,
visual splendour and divinity, represents four-armed Ganesh, lord of
auspices, good beginning and obstruction-free accomplishment of the
goal or the ‘desired’. Unlike most divine images that move the mind,
even with a divine impulse – such images’ essence, inclining to laud
the represented One, this image of the elephant god cools the
agitating mind and by its oceanic serenity transports it into a zone
where every conflict melts, dissolves and dies and a divine lustre
lands into it. Here in the image its medium – the stone, seems to melt
and uninterrupted the eye transcends all material zones, all forms,
leading the mind to merge with the Formless. Deity images, even when
enshrining a sanctum, shrine or a devotional mind, are rarely seen
attaining such power to liberate as does this marble image of Lord
Ganesh.
With rare skill the sculptor has transformed the solid stone piece
into an image one can look through. It has the lustre and transparence
of crystal, fluidity of water cascading amidst a mass of ice-covered
marble rocks and the eye-soothing effect which a mass of pearls would
create. This sense of fluidity and transparence is further enhanced by
diamonds like semi-precious stone-beads embedded around the deity’s
halo and crown revealing a look as do dew-drops gathered on
lotus-leaves in a pond reflecting the morning sun’s gentle rays. The
gold foils, used for defining body-parts, edges of halo, borders and
pleats of ‘antariya’ – lower wear, crown, necklace, bangles, rings and
other ornaments, as also his yajnopavit, trunk-line, attributes and
his mount, the tiny mouse, in contrast to the image’s pearls’ like
look, create a magic rarely witnessed even in aesthetic arts. Apart,
the diamond studded halo and crown depict Lord Ganesh’s majesty, and
his few but brilliant jewels, great splendour.
Seated on a rectangular low-height chowki, in a posture known in the
Ganapati iconography as ‘utkut akasana’ : the right leg turned upwards
from knee-joint, and left, laid flat on the pedestal’s base, the
statue represents Lord Ganesh as four-armed carrying in his upper
right hand a noose, in the upper left, a lotus, and in the lower left,
a ‘modak’ – sweet. His normal right hand is held in ‘abhaya’ –
protective posture. The symmetrical posture of his two upper hands as
also of the attributes carried in them is strangely curious. His
symmetrical ears and well proportioned figure : the right and left
sides having equal volume, and the lower right hand held in ‘abhaya’
balanced with the thickly folded sash laid over the left shoulder,
have been delightfully manipulated. In milky transparent halo-ring his
ears seem to almost float. The gold-line mounted with crimson defines
and distinguishes his ears from their background. His trunk is turned
to usual left, carries a ‘laddu’ on it but the trunk’s tip is not
knotted so as to hold the ‘laddu’ within it.
The iconography of the image is quite simple. For symmetry, the form
of tusks on either side has been conceived as identical like a broken
tusk as in the Ekadanta Ganapati images. The image has upwards arched
small but thoughtful eyes. Far more arched are the image’s eyebrows. A
well-laid ‘tri-punda’ mark defines his forehead, and an upwards turned
‘AUM’, the top of the trunk. As much delightful is the figure’s
anatomy, especially the figure’s long fingers and beautiful pinkish
nails. The curiously moulded belly is large but not pot-like. The
image has been clad in a large pearl-like white ‘antariya’ pleated in
front and the extra length unfurling on either side. This
gold-ornamented lustrous image carrying a lotus, a Vaishnava
attribute, not any of his father Lord Shiva’s, noose and ‘modak’ being
his own, is close to Vaishnava line, as is his Lakshmi-Ganapati form.
This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a number of books.
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veces desde el 6th Jan, 2012
