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Vishnu on Ananta, the Endless Serpent
c. 1700
- Medium
- Gum tempera and gold on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Page: 17.8 x 17.6 cm (7 x 6 15/16 in.); Image: 17.1 x 16.7 cm (6 3/4 x 6 9/16 in.)
- Culture
- Northern India, Himachal Pradesh, Pahari Region, Rajput Kingdom of Chamba
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Before the creation of the world, the god Vishnu was asleep on the serpent Ananta, floating on the cosmic ocean. When the time came for him to create the world, Vishnu’s wife Lakshmi woke him gently by massaging his feet. Then, out of his navel emerged a lotus flower, and Vishnu gave birth to Brahma, the god of creation.
As plants that grow in water, lotus flowers indicate the presence of the waters and their life-affirming capacity. In this painting they are boldly distributed over a deep brown background with basket-weave patterning.
