‘Ekadanta by the Rhythmic Sun’

Acrylic on Canvas

174H x 93W cm

2022

The ultimate Earthly source, Surya, the Sun, pulsates in fiery reds and oranges by the ‘one-toothed’, Ekadanta, who holds his broken tusk in one of his four hands. For this painting, I was inspired by tribal and folk depictions of Ganesha presenting him as a more svelte figure than the numerous full-figured depictions. His trunk reaches to the left to sample a delicacy from one of his left arms as per tradition. Ekadanta is one of the eight names for Ganesha mentioned in the ancient Amarakosha, a Sanskrit wordbook written by the Indian scholar Amarasimha, who was one of the Navaratnas (‘nine gems’) in the court of the Gupta Dynasty Emperor, Vikramaditya, around 400CE.