Vatapatrasayi is a sanskrit term describing a form of Lord Krishna who is reclining on a Banyan leaf. This form Lord Krishna is mentioned in ancient Hindu texts like the Bhagavata Purana, Mahabharata, Divya Prabandhams of the Alwar saints, among other texts, describes the Lord as an infant who is resting on a banyan leaf, floating in the primordial cosmic ocean in the interlude between the eternal cycle of dissolution and recreation of the universe.
This sketch is one of my latest attempts in capturing my understanding of the scene described in the Bhagavata Purana. I was quite captivated by the depiction of this form in various paintings and sculptures I’d seen growing up. We had a large banyan tree in my school, and some of us used to collect the leaves and immerse it in water baths until the fleshy green cellulose and other other tissue dissolved leaving only the intricate network of veins. I even tried painting on one of the successfully preserved leaves. While there’s a rich spiritual and philosophical connotation to all these above mentioned ancient texts, as an artist, my experience in trying to capture this form has also evolved through the years. Paintings and sculptures of this form exist not only in temples and homes in India, but also across museums around the world – here are a few places with links to the artworks. (Harvard Art Museum, Walters Art Museum (MD), several references in this article, and a detailed art-history paper that mentions Vatapatrasayi-art works)
In the earlier attempts I was trying to in some sense recreate a sculpture on a paper or depict an old temple mural or art from a photograph and capture the nuances, it was more of getting the form and structure of the original reference that I was focused on. However, I realized when I was trying this sketch, I’d read the description of the scene and the description of the main subject (in this case Lord Krishna) and his playful, amused face when he sucks his own toes, deeply contemplating the cosmic cycle of dissolution and creation. In this sketch I was trying to capture that scene and not recreate versions of earlier artworks. This was a challenging form, especially for a freehand sketch, getting the proportions right so it captures an infant’s form, and the amused look on an infact’s face, an almost mischievous, yet contemplative look took some doing on my part. Further, I wanted to get the shape with the fine details of a banyan leaf as close to the real leaf as is possible, for which I did some search on botany textbooks.
Finally this was the form I was satisfied, I got most of what I wanted to portray on to paper. Sure was a meditative process for me, and that’s one thing I enjoy about art, for me it’s about portrayal of the subject with an undertone of the artist’s understanding and internalization of the subject and scene.
Wishing all who are celebrating Janmashtami or Krishna Jayanthi (Birthday of Lord Krishna) today, and wishes for a peaceful, prosperous world !!
Beautiful, Sujatha!! Happy Janmashtami!!