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Festival Banner
Nepal; 17th century
Pigment on cloth
Rubin Museum of Art
C2007.19.1 (HAR 69050)

This double-sided scroll painting (paubha) was used as a ritual banner and paraded high above the heads of festival revelers. It is a part of a set depicting the Seven Mothers (Sapta Matrika), important Shaktis (feminine energies) that motivate and empower the male Hindu gods. These mothers are often depicted as a group surrounding sculptures of Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati. One side depicts Vaishnavi, the shakti consort of Vishnu, standing on the back of a mythical water monster (makara) and shaded by a multi-headed cobra hood behind her head. Her primary right hand is held in the gesture of blessing (vitarka mudra), while the remaining hands grasp a wheel emblazoned with the Shri Yantra symbol, a lotus, and writhing serpent. Varahi, on the reverse, is the consort to the third incarnation of Vishnu. The boar-headed divinity stands on a bull, his four hands holding a fish scepter and a scull cup (kapala).

These finely rendered paintings are vibrantly colored and elaborately detailed, with a multitude of decorative patterns on the clothing, jewelry, crowns, and hanging textiles. The bright red and green backgrounds, framed by a yellow or white outer border, feature a flowering vine motif, a convention found throughout Nepalese painting.


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