subject for research through practise

Vedic Yantras

What are Yantras?

Yantras are geometrical figures intended to represent the basic energies. Just as every elementary geometrical figure, a straight line, a square, a cross or a triangle etc., has a symbolic value corresponding to the basic notions, similarly, the Yantras symbolise one or the other power or energy. In other words Vedic Yantras are the graphic representations of Mantras. Yantras can be drawn, engraved or painted on a variety of substances. The classical eight tantrik surfaces are gold, silver, copper, crystal, birch, bone, hide (which can include any type of paper), and Vishnu stone (shalagrama).

What is the function of Yantras?

The Vedic Yantras are designed to remove the afflictions to obtain a particular result eg. to have a child, to have a positive balance in the bank, or to have the awareness to control one’s temper in order to enhance one’s performance at work etc. The Yantras are inscribed with the mystical inscriptions of the afflicted beneficial planets at a particularly auspicious time to suit the individual wearer.The diagrams such as circles, triangles, squares and even a ‘dot’ are used as Yantras. All these represent cosmic energies. A dot known as bindu in Sanskrit symbolizes all pervading space-the origin of all that exists. The yantras shall be seen daily in the morning and one shall lit incense or lamp before the yantra every morning. It is auspicious and blesses the native with success and wealth by continuous puja of Yantras.

Collection of Yantra

• Shree Yantra,

• Navgraha Yantra,

• Akarshan Yantra,

• Mahakali Yantra,

• Baglamukhi Maha Yantra,

• Mahalakshmi Maha Yantra,

• Bajrang Yantra,

• Mahamritunjay Maha Yantra,

• Bhairon Yantra,

• Mangal Yantra,

• Bhom Yantra,

• Maruti Yantra,

• Brihaspati Yantra,

• Matangi Yantra,

• Budh Yantra,

• Meru Yantra,

• Chandra Yantra,

• Rahu Yantra,

• Dhumvati Yantra,

• Ramraksh Yantraj,

• Durgaambajiyan Yantra,

• Santan Gopal Yantra,

• Durga Bisa Yantra,

• Saraswati Yantra,

• Durga Yantra,

• Sampoorn Maha Lakshmi Yantra,

• Ganesh Yantra,

• Shani Yantra,

• Gayatri Yantra,

• Shiv Yantra,

• Hanuman Yantra,

• Shubh Labh Yantra,

• Kaal Sarp Yantra,

• Shukra Yantra,

• Kamdev Yantra,

• Sukh Samridhi Yantra,

• Kamala Yantra,

• Surya Yantra,

• Karya Sidhi Yantra,

• Vahan Dhurghtna Yantra,

• Ketu Yantra,

• Vastu Yantra,

• Kuber Yantra,

• Vashikaran Yantra,

• Kanakdhara Yantra,

• Vyaparvridhi Lakshmi Yantra,

• Lakshmi Narayan Yantra,

• Vighantrasnavgrah Yantra

Mid Point Review's Feedback

On Mid Point review I presented my artwork 'Trinity'. I got really nice suggestions and feedback which would help me to develop my work. I was really stuck on colouring process. My classmates saw my some fail colouring experiments and suggested me to try linework using colours or even I can use screen printing methods and get it print in different colours. It is really nice idea to work it out. Even they told me to use colour wash and draw illustration on those colours. These are some of the notes and comments I got on Mid Point review-

1. What about printing in color instead of coloring separate bits of the illustration?

2. Think about the color philosophy. Coloring brings out recognizable things within the illustration.

3. You could try random blocks of color on top of which to add your illustration instead of coloring the        illustration itself.

4. Naturalistic approach – It’s best to use your own statement instead of following traditional norms in terms of coloring especially (this will help in terms of contextualizing your piece within the modern context as well)

What if you add color to the line work itself? Might be good idea to use earthy colors instead of magical, heavenly ones

5. Might use different colors depending on the thickness of the line?

6. Blowing the piece up might change the characters, therefore it’s a good idea to blow them up and add more details afterwards (work on top of the already existing characters)

7. Screen printing? Would it affect the quality of the detail work?

8. Would it be a good idea to add a bit of breathing space between the figures, because it is a bit difficult to get the whole richness of the piece otherwise?

9. Does it need depth or would it be more like a pattern/wallpaper?

10. The artwork possesses baroque and rococo art qualities because of its richness and intensity.

11. Technically impressive/eye for detail, therefore be more ambitious and push your work even further

12. Ask yourself how can it be used for example? As murals or wallpapers maybe? 

Trinity

In Hinduism, God is thought to be made up of three gods. This holy trinity is known as the Trimurti. The three forms of this trinity are the gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Hindu believe that the gods within trinity represent the following three aspects: creation (Brahma), preservation (Vishnu); and destruction (Shiva). These three are the main mythological heroes of Hindu mythological stories. None other than illustrating the 'trinity' would be a great start of this project.

The objectives to be considered were characterization of mythological heroes, symbolization of mythological terms, and the visual language. It is to be said that god is within us; within each human being. Even more 'God' is a particular nature, a quality, like Brahma is in charge of raja guna- the quality of passion, Vishnu is in charge of sattva guna- the quality of goodness and Shiva is in charge of tama guna- the quality of ignorance. For the project, I consider them the mythological heroes who are one of us, with these different qualities. Therefore, unlike traditional characterization of Hindu gods, they are illustrated as human beings who complete this whole world. Their main characteristics illustrated for their recognition. Such as Brahma has four heads which is a symbol of four Vedas. Instead of heads, eyes are being illustrated for its main reason to have a watch in all directions. Though we can see only two eyes, the third one is always behind him. Vishnu is with the huge snake behind him and Shiva is with the moon and snake around his neck. Behind all these great gods there are great goddesses that assist them in their duties. These goddess are the consorts of the trimurti; they are Sarasvati, Lakshmi, and Parvati. Goddess are the symbol of power which is always in our body in the form of tantra. It has a scientific method to bring out this spiritual power through chakras- centers of energy. These chakras are shown in a symbolically on the body of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Visual language was the major part to be considered. It was not supposed to be looked only Indian nor only western. It is a trial of Indo- western style with its minute details. Since all these objectives were focused at the first and I am still working on the colors and whichever trials I did was not satisfactory. Hence this piece was decided to be kept black and white.

Sita sings the blues

When I was searching for my project material I came across with this really interesting video. It really expresses the way I want to present my project. They have used the story of 'Ramayana' and presented it in a contemporary way. I really love the approach of the story and the way they have narrated the storyline with two western people. Mixing of two illustration styles make it really interesting. 

I'm not sure what I am going to create with Hindu mythological stories but this can be an option for me. I think I should can think to create a narrative video.

Nina Paley. Sita Sings The Blues. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QkYOqI3jSM. 2012.

Writing the proposal : Modern Myths

"Modern Myths"

Giving a modern touch to traditional Indian mythological stories.

Giving a new perspective and visionary language that will revolutionary

change the point of view of audience towards the subject.

Why this subject:
Today we handed in our Final project's proposal. From the beginning of the course we had to think upon our final project. It was really difficult task me because the proposal I had submitted before joining the college was based on different subject. I read the book 'Immortals of Meluha' by Amish and it gave me new perspective towards Indian Mythology in a contemporary way. I have never been so much familiar with Indian Mythology but this book boost my curiosity and took me on such a high point of interest that I change my mind and decided to take up this subject for my MA project. The main reason behind taking this subject was to give Indian Mythology a new contemporaised identity. I have observed that nowadays mythology has been limited upto old generation. New generation is completely unknown of these valuable source of practical knowledge and moralities of life. Moreover it is our culture and it is our responsibility to keep our cultural values alive. Therefore I want to targate young generation of India. It is said that the young generation is the future of our country. But if they keep being unaware of the richness of their culture, it would mean the end for Indian cultural values in the young generation. Unfortunately, nowadays, because of modernization and some other reasons, people are losing their interest in traditional cultural activities. With my project I want to get people interested again and introduce them to a traditional world in a new way. 

Goals for this project:
My goal within illustration would be presenting my traditional subject in a 'indo-western' contemporary visual language. I have been working in only an Indian contemporary visual language. Therefore, this project will help me to expand my skills to create my own indo-western visual language. I have a broad view on my research study. The research will focus on how the traditional subjects have been handled in the past and what kind of changes have been occurred in handling these subjects till now. This will include the study of work practice of traditional artists and contemporary artists from India as well as western countries. Study of traditional and contemporary western art will probably broaden my views and will motivate me for different experiments.

I want focus on human anatomy and animal anatomy. I have been drawing figures in a abstract manner but for this project I have to focus on anatomical drawings. This project will lead me to combine human anatomy and animal anatomy for character design. Even Background is going to be important part of my project. I have never been focused that much on backgrounds I used to draw main characters with minimal backgrounds. Even I want to play with patterns, materials like papers, cloth, textures, beads, buttons, feathers etc. I want to experiment with spaces and want to create something which is coming out from the background and illustrations with layers.

In short this project is going to be completely experimentive with drawings and materials.     

Faces Project: working on a final artwork

While working on the final artwork. size was the main hurdle for me. Though I have been working on the A1 size, I have never done such type of illustration on A1. I did some drawings to make sure my composition. But, as I started working on A1 I had to change my composition as per the space division. 'Using grids' is the best technique and it makes it easier to create rhythm in our composition. It is to be said that we should never forget our basics. For this project I was constantly recalling all the principles of elements i.e. Line, color, shape, texture, space, form. And principles of design i.e. unity/ harmony, proximity, similarity, continuation, repetition, rhythm, altering, balance, symmetry, hierarchy, proportion, dominance, similarity and contrast.

I wanted to create an overall symmetrical illustration but each element- figure must be different. It was real task for me to execute a traditional subject 'Solah- shringar' in my visual language. I have been working in two different styles. One is delicate, decorative style which usually suits for emotional, light subjects and another is using rough bold strokes which looks like hairy and a bit like etching - print making art. This style I have been using for bold, wacky subject. But this time as a experiment I wanted to combine both styles for the 20 faces illustration and for single big face I decided to use my bold hairy style. I always use lots of colors in my illustration. So this time I decided to keep my artwork black and white. It was really challenging for me to express each 'shringar' though my lines, shapes, forms, patterns. This time I wanted to concentrate on my line work, detailing, expressions and anatomy. For first time I an drawing figures having anatomy. Otherwise I was using abstract figures. Even I wanted to play with negative space and positive space to create depth.

Thoroughly I really enjoyed working on 'Solah Shringar' with 4 sleepless nights. I was really happy with the end result.

For the big one face I decided to draw that foodie man with mustache. It was an idea of Indian wedding but I changed it little bit. After coming here I observed food is really expensive here. As per self experience I always decided should I buy that or not as per the price. Even most of the time I stay starving without food even I saw my favorite food. So an idea came in my mind that I should illustrate this thought in my single face. I created all the food items in his head and paste imaginary food rates with sticky notes. The illustration expresses this foodie man is really happy and cheap food rates made him tempting. As sticky notes are yellow in color, white paper would have given contrast. Therefore I decided to use light yellow paper which will reduce the contrast and even add color in my illustration.

Celebrating 'Dasara' far away from my country

This is my first Indian festival on the land of London. Everyone from my family, friend circle was wishing me for Dasara. It is celebrated on the tenth day of Navaratri in the significance of victory of Lord Rama over the ten-headed demon king Ravana and also the victory of Goddess Durga over the demons Mahishasur. There fore it is also known as 'Vijayadashami' which literally means vijay (victory) + Dashami (tenth day).

On this day people celebrate this publically and with their families too. They create a huge statue of Ravana with ten heads and enlight  it with fire in symbol of 'death of negativity'. We call it 'Ravan Dahan'.

                                

In my region, people worship the Apta tree (Bauhinia racemosa) and exchange its leaves (known as golden leaves) as a symbol of gold wishing each other a bright and prosperous future. The tradition of exchanging Apta leaves is symbolic of Raghuraja, an ancestor of Rama and Kubera. Many artisan communities ritually worship books, study material, tools of all kinds and they are given rest on this specific day. The saffron-coloured Marigold are particularly associated with and sold in significant quantities during this festive period. They are used for both worship and decorating homes and work-places. 

I always celebrate this festival with worship of my colors, pens, my computer and my books. Even we exchange Apta leaves in relatives and neighborhood. Being far from my home I was badly missing my family, relatives. But the good thing was it made me recall the way we celebrate this festival and the importance of this festival. I thing the distance made me realize our moral values and the reason behind celebrating the festival. Though I was extremely busy with my faces project I celebrated this festival in my small hostel room on a small scale. My mother always says, ''no matter how wealthy  it is, worship from your heart is always accepted by the god''. I drew small symbol of 'Saraswati' (goddess of knowledge) and put some color bottles pens, markers aside. I didn't have all the material which we have been using for worship, marigold flowers was replaced by pink western flowers. With out haldi- kumkum, lamp (because of fire alarm) I closed my eyes and hands together and pray for god from my bottom of the heart. It was a real magic, that whole day I was in a different spiritual trace and it gave me some hidden energy that each and every single cell of my body was feeling. 

This feeling of festival gave me inputs for my final project's subject. I am thinking to take up the project related Hindu mythological stories. Our all festivals have some scientific and geographic reasons as well as the are based on mythological stories. Today's Dasara celebration really gave me feeling that I should finalize my final project's subject related to Hindu mythological stories.