Mayadevi
Mukti Singh Thapa, 2013
Mineral colour
143 × 116 cm

© Prithivi Bahadur Pande

This painting depicts one of the most significant episodes in the life of the Buddha, his birth, which took place while his mother, Queen Mayadevi, was travelling from the royal palace at Kapilavastu to her maternal home at Devdaha, now in the southern region of Nepal. While resting at the beautiful Lumbini grove (in the southern part of Nepal), with flowering trees heavy with ripened fruits, the Queen, having realized that it was the time for the birth of Buddha, held the branch of a Plaksa tree, extending her right arm to grasp the branch of the tree. The Shakyamuni Buddha came forth from the right side of his mother’s chest, in a state of full consciousness. At the time of the birth, flowers blossomed and fruits ripened, very beautifully visualised in the painting; the Queen’s retinue of servants can be seen attending to her comfort. The figure of Queen Mayadevi, the main subject of the painting, is enlarged and thus dominates the composition of the other characters, including the Buddha. As narrated in the Buddhist text Lalitvistara, heavenly divinities all came forth to witness the birth, and in the top two corners of the composition we see gods scattering flowers and perfumed water from the sky.

To the right of Queen Mayadevi we see the glowing Buddha poised atop a lotus petal, above him the chief Hindu deities: the holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara, as well as the King of heaven, Indra, showering holy water and flowers on the auspicious one.

The painting captures all the essences described in various religious texts on the birth of the Buddha, the large number of characters involved, the ambience, the auspiciousness and spirituality of the moment.