Shesh-shayi Vishnu

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This magnificent portrayal of Shesh-shayi Vishnu with his spouse Lakshmi caressing him and Brahma revealing himself from the lotus sprouting from Vishnu's navel adheres to the great Kangra miniature tradition of India's classical art. The strokes of brush used in rendering this brilliant piece carry the viewing eye, with their subtle refinement, elegance and colour delicacy, back to the later phase of Kangra art when its faces and figures had attained their celestial charm, divine glow and unusual aesthetic beauty, colours all their dimensions of depth, brilliance, delineation, conciliation and contrast, their tones all their elegance, finish, and magic discovering the deep in the light and the landscape its real strength, relevance and role as an independent entity. Though the background in this miniature consists of ocean, the Kshirasagar, and hence restricting multiplicity of colours, yet using graded tones of the same colour with casual one or two streaks of a different one the artist has not only differentiated the ocean from sky but has also controlled such a large canvas wondrously and without resorting to a bird, fish or plant or any other form for breaking its quietude,.

As India's scriptural tradition has it, Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshvara are the lords of creation, sustenance and extermination of this perishable world. These three manifestations of the Great God are also perishable but they have their own different ages. Brahma's life span is shorter than that of Vishnu or Maheshvara. Brahma's life is fourteen times more than that of Indra, Vishnu's two times and Maheshvara's four times than that of Brahma. It is said that one man-age consists of four yugas, that is, Sat-yuga, Dvapara, Treta and Kaliguga. Such one thousand four-fold yugas constitute one day of Brahma. Brahma has a life of one hundred and fifty years consisting of such Brahma days.

Devi Bhagavata says that after the Great Deluge the universe remains for hundred and twenty Brahma-years desolate and void. Thereafter appears Vishnu sleeping upon a fig leaf afloat on oceanic waters. This marks the beginning of the new age. Soon after there appears the Great Serpent Shesh upholding the earth on his hood. The Great Serpent emits from his breaths milk-like white substance converting into milky white all oceanic waters and hence the ocean where Vishnu had his abode gets its Kshirasagar, or the ocean of milk, name. Vishnu, when meditating within him as to what is the object of his being and his role, a celestial unseen female voice, that is, of Mahadevi, elaborates to him the object of his birth and his role. As elaborated, there grows from his navel a lotus and from this lotus Brahma reveals himself. It is said Brahma with a desire to create does great penance and acquires the power to create and then with the approval of Vishnu creates the universe.

This description by Prof. P.C. Jain. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture.