A Folio Illustrating Padma Purana

Compartmentalised into two parts, the folio portrays on one side Aruna, his mother Vinata and the great bird Garuda, and on the other, Kadru, a female serpent, its mother Daksha and other serpents. As the legend has it, Aruna was sage Kashypa’s son from Vinata, his bird-wife, and Kadru, his daughter from Daksha, his serpent-wife. Vinata bore an egg. Eager to have its offspring immediately, she forced it open when it was yet immature and thus Aruna was born half-developed. Unhappy with this unwanted hurry of his mother Aruna cursed that she would remain slave of serpent Kadru, her sister, for 500 years. The myth and thereby the painting portrays unique sense of cosmic unity. Sage Kashypa symbolises the divine spirit bestowing with life all beings, humans, reptiles, birds or animals that born of the same source comprise one family, ‘Vasudhaiv kutumbakam’ in its broadest sense.