Mother and Child

Mother and Child

A goddess lays on a couch, a servant massaging her feet.

This is Parvati, the wife of the Hindu god Shiva, and she has just given birth to their first son-Kartikeya. He will become the commander of the armies of Shiva and fight many battles against the forces of darkness.

 Above her the nine planets in Hindu astrology,   including the sun and the moon, have come to bless   this most auspicious event.

  She holds above her, in her outstretched hand, a   lotus bud that is just starting to open. A symbol of   purity, it announces the birth of a son.

 The sculptors of the Pala and Sena dynasties   elaborated their sculptures with an ornateness and   richness of detail that distinguishes Pala and Sena   sculpture from all that came before.

These sculptures reward the visitor who takes the time to examine them carefully.

The Sculptor of the Varendra Museum’s  ”Parvati Giving Birth to Kartikeya” captures the beautiful smile of a new mother. Observe how the sculptor has given the eyes and lips of Parvati a mirror like finish that brings the sculpture to life.

Kartikeya reaches up to touch his mother, and let her know that, like all babies, he is hungry!

A mother nursing her child is perhaps the most universal, and amongst the oldest subjects that has inspired artists in cultures throughout the world and has been so for a good 5000 years.

Nor is the creation of sculptures of mothers holding their children restricted to humans. Sitting quietly in a corner of this gallery is Manasa, the serpent goddess who protects children from snake bite and cures those who are bitten by snakes. Proudly she holds her son for us to see.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Here in this gallery is a sculpture of a king and queen holding what appear to be twins! The sculptors of Bangladesh were very inventive in their art.

Fathers holding their small children are very rare in art and this king holding his son is the only known example in the history of Hindu and Buddhist art.

If the identification of the king and queen as Yakshas is correct, we are seeing a sculpture unique in the history of Buddhist art. The Yakshas were among the earliest followers of the Buddha and their sculptures guarding the entrances to Buddhist stupas are among the oldest stone sculptures in South Asia.                               

You can find many families being depicted in the art in this museum, not just families of gods and goddesses but of ordinary people, but you will have to look closely to find them. 

A family, as an act of devotion, has commissioned this elegant stone sculpture of Loknath, better known as Padmapani [He who carries the Lotus] and as Avalokitishvara. 

 It was a common Buddhist practice to include the donor’s image under the lotus on which the deity stands or sits. In this sculpture the Bajracharya priest sitting on the right is conducting the dedication rituals for the family, and on the left the father and mother kneel in prayer. Look carefully and you will see their little son, his hands clasped in prayer, tucked nearly under the lotus on which Loknath stands.

Last updated by admin at 10 September, 2020