Two-sided Festival Banner

The banner shows two matrka, or “mothers,” a group of goddesses representing the female counterparts of great Hindu gods and also considered to be those deities’ energies (shakti). The white goddess is Varuni, the goddess of the water, symbolized by the multiple snakes that form a hood above her head, the mythical water monster (makara) she dances on, and the lotus and serpent she holds in her hands. The red Varahi on the reverse is the shakti of the deity Vishnu’s boar incarnation. She has the head of a boar and stands on a bull with her four hands holding a fish, an elephant goad, and a skull cup.