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| Keywords: Sagar mathan.jpg en Painting on paper depicting The Churning of the World This remarkably detailed painting shows the Samudramanthana episode At the centre of the composition is mount Mandara identified by an inscription in English As usual in South Indian painting at the top of the mountain a temple's golden kalasha is visible Just above it Viṣṇu is emerging half bust from a cloud carrying the amrita vessel in his hands The densely forested Mandara inhabited by gandharvas playing musical instruments rests on the Kurma duly identified by an inscription 'Kurm raja' Coiled around the mountain is the serpent Vasuki identified as 'Vasuka' whose tail end is held by the dikpalas here identified as 'Asuras' and the head by the asuras here labelled 'Suras' Both dikpalas and asuras stand in the ocean's water filled with fish The dikpalas are headed by Indra easily recognizable by the vajra in his hand and by the thousand eyes on his body He is followed by the two-headed Agni the bushy-moustached Yama and by Nirriti Varuna Vayu Kubera Ishana Surya and Candra On the opposite side are nine asuras enveloped by the dark fumes spewed out by Vasuki In the foreground are the many precious objects which emerged from the depths of the sea the horse Uchchaihshravas here depicted with only one instead of the usual seven heads the white elephant Airavata a throne the fire the tulsi plant a chariot the goddess Lakshmi seated on a lotus identified by an inscription 'Lakshmee goddess of abundance' the parijata tree Surabhi Soma a portly man seated on a throne carrying a book identified by an inscription as 'Daruma god of water' possibly Varuna five precious stones yet another tree possibly the kalpavriksha the apsaras one of whom Tilottama is immediately carried away by the asura brothers Sunda and Upasunda and finally a goddess with a broom possibly Jyeshtha or Alakshmi sister of Lakshmi and goddess of misfortune It should be noted that the list of the objects retrieved from the ocean varies according to the texts The variety presented here is especially large as it includes the throne the fire the tulsi the chariot and last but not least Alakshmi It is also unusual to find the story of Tilottama Sunda and Upasunda hinted at in this context Yet another remarkable feature is the presence of Varuna It is generally Varuni the goddess of wine who appears in the renderings of this incident and another strange omission is that of Dhanvantari the physician of the gods who appears with the amrita vessel in his hands As noted above in this painting it is Viṣṇu who carries the amrita to the devas In the left upper corner of the painting Viṣṇu as Mohini identified by an inscription 'Narayana' is doling out the amrita to the assembled gods seated opposite the asuras While she is busy she is distracted by the asuras clamouring for their share In that moment Rahu seated among the devas and anxious to get his share of amrita is discovered and decapitated by Viṣṇu's cakra The story continues in the upper right corner the gods and the asuras are engaged in a fight and immediately to the left Śiva swallows the hahahala poison shown as a blue line on his throat under the watchful gaze of the gods and of Parvati http //www britishmuseum org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details aspx objectid 3058356 partid 1 output Places 2f 2fOR 2f 2f41361 2f 2f41361-2-20 2f 2fPainted+in+Thanjavur 2f 2f 2f 2f 2f 2f orig 2fresearch 2fsearch_the_collection_database 2fadvanced_search aspx currentPage 2 numpages 10 Author ca 1820 PD-art Mohini Samudra manthan jpg Samudra manthan Kamadhenu White elephants Airavata | ||||
