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Home > Sunday Mid Day News > Lord Ganesh gets a makeover

Lord Ganesh gets a makeover

Updated on: 21 May,2017 10:00 AM IST  |  Mumbai
Benita Fernando |

Move over Ravi Varma. The 10 avatars of Vishnu and the eight forms of Lakshmi have been re-imagined in a new coffee table book

Lord Ganesh gets a makeover


When Vijayakumar Arumugam started sketching Brahma, he knew the tables had turned. To imagine the supreme creator of the Hindu pantheon on a digital medium was an act that was both exhilarating and daunting for this Mumbai-based illustrator. Brahma, like his counterparts in the Hindu trinity, is a deity whose form is now part of religious lore and popular culture. With his four heads, immaculate white beard and sage-appeal, Brahma epitomises elderly wisdom. In Arumugam's hands, however, the god looks less like a pensive hermit and more like a formidable warrior - the severe jaw line and broad neck are surely not of the Brahma we are used to.


"I hesitate to create something as big and powerful as these gods," says Arumugam.


If the 37-year-old was hesitant, then it doesn't show in the 91 drawings that he has made for The Book of One, a voluminous coffee table conceptualised and written by advertising professional Meera Sharath Chandra. The Book of One may sound like it belongs to the genre of fantasy fiction, but, that it captures the essential wisdom of Hinduism in 12 parts is more accurate. "In Hinduism, the idea of everything adding to one, that we are a microcosm within the macrocosm, that we are a tiny expression of the universe, is a dominant one. The underlying philosophy of oneness is what we have presented in the book," says Chandra.

Vijayakumar Arumugam and his rendition of the Gajavaktra avatar of Ganesha. Pic/Satej Shinde
Vijayakumar Arumugam and his rendition of the Gajavaktra avatar of Ganesha. Pic/Satej Shinde

Twelve equals one
Chandra hit upon the idea of making a book that would convey this idea in 2013, when she moved back to Mumbai from London. With 35 years of advertising experience as creative head and agency head with leading industry firms behind her, Chandra set up her digital-led integrated communications agency called Tigress Tigress. The first offering from firm was intended to be The Book of One.

For someone who has relocated out of India several times, Chandra's upbringing and lifestyle is influenced deeply by her interest in Hindu spirituality. "In London, I would make the 45 minute Tube journey to East Ham, where there were a couple of temples, and get my weekly dose of religion," she says.

For The Book of One, therefore, Chandra sought out two things - clusters of gods and imagination. "Within Hinduism, numbers play a huge role. We chose to use these numbers for storytelling rather than any numerological value," she says. Thus, The Book of One has the twins called Ashvin, the trinity of Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva, the eight Lakshmis who are collectively called Ashtalakshmi, and the nine planets, among others, to convey both spiritual concepts as well as imaginative forms.

Arumugam, who describes himself as "a traditional Tamil boy", hails from the temple localities of Chennai. He graduated in animation from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. The artist, who has formerly worked with visual effects company, Rhythm and Hues, and has also drawn the Chennai Superkings (in which Dhoni looks like a glistening warrior from the Mahabharata), found the project right up his alley. At his Malad apartment, Arumugam slowly flips through the hardbound 128-page book, in which Hindu gods, goddesses, planetary deities and demigods are presented in astonishing detail. "I love lines. I love details," he says, pointing to the figures, some of which could remind you of Jean Giraud's fantastical beings.

Meera Sharath Chandra, The Book
Meera Sharath Chandra, The Book's Author

Both Arumugam and Chandra state that they wished to rethink the visual imagery of Indian gods and goddesses, a tradition set by Raja Ravi Varma and which entered the imaginations of our childhoods through calendar art and Amar Chitra Katha. The duo has succeeded in their attempt, for where else would you find the Matsya avatar a superhuman with a fish head? Or, a beefy, cyborgian Ganesha? "We wanted to draw the younger generation into the idea, without giving them a tome about Hindu mythology. Here is a contemporary visualisation of Hinduism's deities," says Arumugam, who took about five months to complete the project. There were days when he would make four at a go, and some others when one deity would take days together. Every god and goddess had their own demands.

Among his signature styles, Arumugam plays up the headgear, the ajna chakra on the forehead, the symbolism of vahans and props, and the delicate curves of the goddesses. His interest in human anatomy - he says he continuously studies people and memorises postures - is seen in the drawings. "We were careful to balance the well-known stories with the lesser known ones, familiarity with newness. So, the trinity is alongside the 12 avatars of Ganesha. Ganesha is no teddy-bear, you know? He has his fearsome aspect and he took form as these 12 avatars to destroy asuras," says Chandra of the book which is priced at Rs 12,000 and is available for purchase on Arumugam's website (vijayarumugam.com).

Whether you take to the new forms of these celestial beings or not, The Book of One will make you question your perceptions. "No one has ever seen a god. And no one can say that a god can look like this or not. This is our imagination, our interpretation of these beings," says Arumugam.

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