c. 1720

Ganesha and Sarasvati

This opening page of a series depicts elephant-headed Ganesha, who blesses new undertakings, and Sarasvati, the Goddess of Learning and the Arts. It began a vertically oriented and richly illustrated series of the Bhagavata Purana (Story of the Lord Vishnu). Sarasvati holds a pothi, a horizontal religious manuscript, in one of her four hands and a rosary, used for reciting the names of the god, in another. Although she faces toward Ganesha, the deities do not interact but appear as individual icons for worship, each enshrined among flowers in one niche of an elaborate arcade.