Untitled

Unknown

ca. 1880–85 · Lithograph, printed in black and hand-colored with watercolor and selectively applied glaze · Asian Art

This is one of a series depicting the ten wisdom goddesses, Mahavidya. Each is a personification of an aspect of transcendent wisdom in tantric Hinduism. Here is the goddess Dhumavati, literally "the smoky one," associated with things inauspicious, including the four months of the rainy season (Chaturmas) when no auspicious celebrations should be held. She is invoked to rescue devotees from life’s troubles or to aid in the defeat of one’s enemies. Here she is presented as an aged widow with disheveled, unbound, white hair and wearing the simple white sari reserved for widows, white being an inauspicious color in Hindu culture. She holds a winnowing tray of woven bamboo that, along with her aged physique, are her principal identifiers. She typically rides a black crow as her vehicle (vahana), but here her crows have alighted on the turrets of temple processional car on which she rides. Trident (trisula) finials indicate its sectarian affiliation to Shiva, as do the pink pennants that flutter in the breeze. The multi-storied domed temple model resembles later medieval Bengali brick temple architecture. While Dhumavati’s natural habitat is the cremation ground, she is here depicted with her crows in a lushly forested landscape above which hover the billowing grey clouds of the monsoon.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1880–85

Medium

Lithograph, printed in black and hand-colored with watercolor and selectively applied glaze

Culture

West Bengal, Calcutta

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Purchase, Robert and Bobbie Falk Philanthropic Fund Gift, 2021