Description
Tribal Indian statue art
The tribes, practicing Dokra art, are from the Bastar district, in South India (today located in the state of Chattisgarh), they emigrated several centuries before and settled all over India from North to South.
Most have kept their tradition (culinary art, clothing, festivals) and their animist religion.
Dokra art: a thousand-year-old knowledge in the manufacture of statues
This traditional and artisanal art has not changed for millennia (more than 4000 years) and, the technique used is still that of lost wax: a coarse clay model is made and then covered with wax by the artist who will give it its final shape with its details. The whole is again covered with a clay mixture and then heated in an open hearth where a copper alloy will be poured. Visit my blog.
Objects produced by Dokra artists can be of a usual nature: cup, candle holder ... musical instruments (brass), or artistic such as jewelry, animals: horses, elephants, turtles ..., statues of men and women representing scenes of daily life and Hindu deities adopted by the tribes: Ganesh, Lakshmi ...
Posture Standing in all his splendor, in an attitude of openness, Ganesh welcomes.
Ganesh's belly is always large: it is the center of vital energies. It symbolizes anchoring, presence here and now, stability.
Gestures The left arm with the elbow bent upwards makes the sign of protection (abhaya) and the other left hand holds a jewel, symbol of wealth. The outstretched right hand holds a laddhu, an Indian candy while his second right hand carries an ear of rice: two symbols of sweetness and abundance.
Headgear Tiara-shaped crown: Kiritamukuta - symbol of royalty.
The wheel of fire or wheel of the universe halo its head: it symbolizes the cycle of life: birth / destruction but also the fire which illuminates, destroys ignorance and/or which fertiles.
Mount The rat: Mushaka. Symbol of both lust and disease but also prosperity and wealth, intelligence ...
The rat can represent Ganesh on its own: it emphasizes the ambivalence of Ganesh which unites opposites: large/small - half animal/half human - lively spirit in a massive body... Doesn't her belly include the entire universe ?