Vedic Art Print – Kumuda, The White Water Lily

Provenance

'Kumuda' is composed as a botanical plate: cream-white water lilies float above round leaves and a knotted rhizome on a parchment-toned ground, with a petal, a cut flower, a bud, a leaf, a seed and a rhizome section set around them. The Devanagari word 'कुमुद' is lettered below with a reference to the Atharvaveda, 4.34.5, a verse that describes a heaven in which lotus and water-lilies bloom. The print lets the largest, most open bloom anchor the centre of the sheet.

Three open white water lilies with layered, pointed petals and golden-orange stamens sit among round, dark-green leaves whose undersides show a reddish brown. A closed bud rises on a long, curving stem at upper right, and the knotted rhizome with its fine roots runs along the base. At the edges sit a single petal and a halved flower at upper left, a small leaf at right, and a seed and a rhizome cross-section at lower right.

Ivory and cream petals with golden-orange centres sit against green and rust-red leaves, on ochre-cream parchment. Fine pen lines trace every petal vein, and the faint mottling of the ground is visible in the image itself.