While He Reads Rigveda
23x 38 cm
Watercolor and Gouache on Paper
2020
Brahmā who is the creator god of all existence and is the physical embodiment of the Universe, in Hinduism. Brahma is often represented with four heads and arms. His hands hold no weapons, rather symbols of knowledge and creation. Four heads are credited with creating the - four Vedas symbolizing knowledge, mala (rosary beads), sruva (ladle) symbolizing means to feed the sacrificial fire and a kamandalu- utensil with water- where all creation emancipates from.
In this painting he is diligently reading a verse from ऋग्वेद and is stuck at Verse number - 1.164.32
य ईं चकार न सो अस्य वेद य ईं ददर्श हिरुगिन्नु तस्मात्। स मातुर्योना परिवीतो अन्तर्बहुप्रजा निर्ऋतिमा विवेश ॥
Possible translations of the verse:
“A man with many children succumbs to miseries”.
“He who has made ( this state of things) does not comprehend it: he who has beheld it, has it also verily hidden (from him): he, whilst yet enveloped in his mother's womb, is subject to many births and has entered upon evil”.
“He who hath made him cloth not comprehend him: from him who saw him surely is he hidden. He, yet enveloped in his Mother's bosom, source of much life, hath sunk into destruction.”