Vedic Art Print – Pushkara, The Blue Water Lily

Provenance

'Pushkara' is composed as a botanical plate: a cluster of blue-violet water lilies rises from a thick rhizome across a parchment-toned ground, with a petal, a cut flower, buds, stamens, a leaf, a seed pod and a rhizome section set around it. The Devanagari word 'पुष्कर' is lettered below with a reference to the Atharvaveda, 12.1.24, a verse from the hymn to the Earth in which her fragrance is said to have settled on the lotus. The print lets the tall, curving stems lead the eye up to the open blooms.

Two fully open blooms with pointed, finely veined petals of blue and lilac surround golden stamens, while a closed bud stands between them on a slender stem. Broad, rounded leaves with veins radiating from the centre spread below, and the knotted rhizome and its fine roots anchor the plant at the base. Around the edges sit a single petal and a halved flower at upper left, a bud at left, a seed pod with whole and halved seeds and a rhizome cross-section at lower left, a leaf at right and three stamens beside it.

Blue, lilac and violet petals meet golden centres and soft grey-green leaves, with the rhizome in warm browns, all on ochre-cream parchment. Fine pen lines trace every vein and petal, and the faint mottling of the ground is visible in the image itself.