themandalaland

magictransistor:

Jalasayana Vishnu Mandala. Nepal. 1857.  

With Vishnu at the centre of a lotus mandala accompanied by devi, Garuda, and Ananta, surrounded by petals with twelve manifestations with shakti, all encircled by the coils of Ananta, with narrative and mythical scenes, Ganesha, Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu and Kartikeya above and scenes of ritual and portraits of donors below. Although Jalasayana Vishnu has iconic importance in Nepal, few painted mandalas of this subject survive. The blue reclining Vishnu depicted in worship in the lower registers of the painting probably represents the massive seventh century stone image at Budhanilkantha in the Kathmandu Valley.