Dashavataar and the Theory of Evolution: Part 1 Water and Earth & Animal Forms
From the Desk of Vitasta
Time: It's been a long time comin'
So, as I find myself inside what I am going to assume is the dead center of the Coronavirus section of the space-time continuum, I am finally getting back to finishing some pending tasks. This art project, a painting assignment (now obsolete) that had landed in my lap back in 2015, has taken 5 years in the making, and is as yet, far from completion, but this year I have made some solid strides, and I think it would be a good idea to put these down, finally and formally in my blog.
The idea in itself is a fairly simple one. A juxtaposing of the dashavataar (the ten avataars of Vishnu) with the Darwinian theory of human evolution, and though one might be taken a bit aback with this association at first glance, when thought over, it quickly becomes apparent as to why this idea is not as dramatic or absurd as it first may have seemed. In fact, this is a very popular discourse and several people have already theorized on this sufficiently. I am listing a few links that you can glance over (But please note that while similar in description, the ideas that I have out forth here, are my own).
Link 1: The Speaking Tree
Link 2: Indrosphere
When one thinks about the theory of evolution in relation to the Dashavatar, the most apparent similarities lie in the animal forms in the early stages of evolution. Here, if you read the scriptures, you are presented with the first 3 avataars, all of whom are water-based/ water-related. A quick study of the theory of evolution of life on planet Earth also presents this scenario, where life is 'born in the primordial soup', and eventually evolves to terrestrial forms. Thus, these becomes fairly simple to correlate.
1. Avataar 1: Matsya (Fish) - Darwinian Model Era - Life from the Silurian Era
2. Avataar 2: Kurma (Turtle)- Darwinian Model Era- Life in the Mesozoic Era (Here I would like to point out, that while, the more knowledgeable amongst the readers would argue that 'Dinosaurs' were wide-spread on land, along with a variety of marine reptiles, this is the "story" of evolution of "mammals", and in this case, the story of the evolution of the "avataars of Vishnu (a man)", and of course, to kindly grant me some artistic liberties 😀.) So, in the case of the second avataar, where we have an amphibian, where life that began in the sea, slowly drifts to towards land.
3. Avataar 3: Varaha ( Water Boar - It took me a while to locate this animal, since it's not very obvious) - Darwinian Model Era- Life from the Cenzoic Era - "New Life" or the Era of Mammals. Here one will argue or question as to why, this animal avataar has been classified as a "water-based" form, and the answer is pretty simple, and again having more to do with my artistic liberties than to do with actual science, though one can argue that the Earth too, was undergoing various changes at this time and it was during this period that the Earth's surface took its present form. The other reason being the mythology around Varaha avataar, where it is said that " Varaha lifted the Earth (goddess Bhudevi) out of the Cosmic Ocean"
At this time, while contemplating the design and themes of the paintings, I decided to correlate the Avataars, which of course follow the 'Darwinian Model' of evolution, with Constellations to tell a simple story, and this lead me down a path where I searched far and wide for old and lost constellations with which to tell this story. The first 3 paintings, all done in oil, follow these ideas:
Moving Beyond the Water:
As the life-forms become more complex in the Darwinian model, so do the Avataars of Vishnu. The fourth Avataar of Vishnu, and the last one in the series depicting 'animals' is the Narshima avataar, though the story states that Narshima was 'half-man, half-lion', but for the sake of continuing with this theme of evolution, we look upon this avataar as simply being 'an animal with a superior brain', or a thinking, more cunning mammal, however, not yet a 'hominid'. Here too, for the Darwinian Model Era, we look towards the Cenozoic, since man too evolved in this time period towards the Pleistocone period. Since this was the last animal avataar for the series, I decided to concentrate more on the imagery of the canvas with a depiction of the prehistoric rainforests. And here lies the contention, "lions" are found in the savanah, or grasslands, not in rain-forests! So naturally, this whole debate led me to concentrate more on an internalized imagery rather than taking clues from "science" or even the mythology behind the avataar, though I did find a report on lions living in the rain-forests of Ethiopia.
Time: It's been a long time comin'
So, as I find myself inside what I am going to assume is the dead center of the Coronavirus section of the space-time continuum, I am finally getting back to finishing some pending tasks. This art project, a painting assignment (now obsolete) that had landed in my lap back in 2015, has taken 5 years in the making, and is as yet, far from completion, but this year I have made some solid strides, and I think it would be a good idea to put these down, finally and formally in my blog.
 |
| First 4 Avataars of Vishnu in Oils and Acrylics. (c) Vitasta Raina Dashavataar references from Wikipedia |
The idea in itself is a fairly simple one. A juxtaposing of the dashavataar (the ten avataars of Vishnu) with the Darwinian theory of human evolution, and though one might be taken a bit aback with this association at first glance, when thought over, it quickly becomes apparent as to why this idea is not as dramatic or absurd as it first may have seemed. In fact, this is a very popular discourse and several people have already theorized on this sufficiently. I am listing a few links that you can glance over (But please note that while similar in description, the ideas that I have out forth here, are my own).
Link 1: The Speaking Tree
Link 2: Indrosphere
When one thinks about the theory of evolution in relation to the Dashavatar, the most apparent similarities lie in the animal forms in the early stages of evolution. Here, if you read the scriptures, you are presented with the first 3 avataars, all of whom are water-based/ water-related. A quick study of the theory of evolution of life on planet Earth also presents this scenario, where life is 'born in the primordial soup', and eventually evolves to terrestrial forms. Thus, these becomes fairly simple to correlate.
1. Avataar 1: Matsya (Fish) - Darwinian Model Era - Life from the Silurian Era
2. Avataar 2: Kurma (Turtle)- Darwinian Model Era- Life in the Mesozoic Era (Here I would like to point out, that while, the more knowledgeable amongst the readers would argue that 'Dinosaurs' were wide-spread on land, along with a variety of marine reptiles, this is the "story" of evolution of "mammals", and in this case, the story of the evolution of the "avataars of Vishnu (a man)", and of course, to kindly grant me some artistic liberties 😀.) So, in the case of the second avataar, where we have an amphibian, where life that began in the sea, slowly drifts to towards land.
3. Avataar 3: Varaha ( Water Boar - It took me a while to locate this animal, since it's not very obvious) - Darwinian Model Era- Life from the Cenzoic Era - "New Life" or the Era of Mammals. Here one will argue or question as to why, this animal avataar has been classified as a "water-based" form, and the answer is pretty simple, and again having more to do with my artistic liberties than to do with actual science, though one can argue that the Earth too, was undergoing various changes at this time and it was during this period that the Earth's surface took its present form. The other reason being the mythology around Varaha avataar, where it is said that " Varaha lifted the Earth (goddess Bhudevi) out of the Cosmic Ocean"
At this time, while contemplating the design and themes of the paintings, I decided to correlate the Avataars, which of course follow the 'Darwinian Model' of evolution, with Constellations to tell a simple story, and this lead me down a path where I searched far and wide for old and lost constellations with which to tell this story. The first 3 paintings, all done in oil, follow these ideas:
Avataar 1: Matsya
 |
| Matsya, the Fish, depicted through the constellation "Volans". Here the canvas is simple, and the palette restricted to shades of blue from the dark waters of the 'primordial soup' or 'celestial river' or 'cosmic ocean', to the pale sky above. |
Avataar 2: Kurma
 |
| Kurma, the turtle, depicted through the constellation "Lyra" - Here, one might note that the constellation used to depict Kurma is not a "turtle", but again, artistic liberties were applied, since there is not a 'turtle or tortoise constellation', however, the constellation 'Lyra' is in fact a 'lyre made from a tortoise shell', so it was the closest. For this canvas, I used the imagery of a "World Tortoise carrying the "Tree of Life" outwards from the ocean, indicating that life was moving beyond the waters |
Avataar 3: Varaha
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| Varaha, the water-boar, depicted through the constellation "Lynx". Here the mythology of the avataar, wherein the Vishnu in the form of Varaha, pulls the "Earth" out of the ocean has been depicted. In this canvas, I also added more "soil" features along with earthworms, germinating seeds and daitoms. The idea is to reflect on a changed Earth with "New Life", and the age of mammals, seen here firmly leaving their watery abodes. |
Moving Beyond the Water:
As the life-forms become more complex in the Darwinian model, so do the Avataars of Vishnu. The fourth Avataar of Vishnu, and the last one in the series depicting 'animals' is the Narshima avataar, though the story states that Narshima was 'half-man, half-lion', but for the sake of continuing with this theme of evolution, we look upon this avataar as simply being 'an animal with a superior brain', or a thinking, more cunning mammal, however, not yet a 'hominid'. Here too, for the Darwinian Model Era, we look towards the Cenozoic, since man too evolved in this time period towards the Pleistocone period. Since this was the last animal avataar for the series, I decided to concentrate more on the imagery of the canvas with a depiction of the prehistoric rainforests. And here lies the contention, "lions" are found in the savanah, or grasslands, not in rain-forests! So naturally, this whole debate led me to concentrate more on an internalized imagery rather than taking clues from "science" or even the mythology behind the avataar, though I did find a report on lions living in the rain-forests of Ethiopia.
Avataar 4: Narshima
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| Narshima, the lion, depicted through the constellation "leo". Here the King of the Jungle roams through a prehistoric forest on a super-moon night. The Full moon came into the picture since I finished this painting on 7th May 2020, which was a super-moon night. I know that is not an excuse to throw away the theme of the entire set of paintings, but sometimes, you need to have some fun 😀. One of the reasons this image looks so different from the set so far, is because of the 'yellow-gold' background behind the figure, and I wanted to bring out a sort of fiery stance to the figure. The other reason is that I used 'acrylic paint' instead of 'oil paint' that I had been using so far. |
Do you think if I had followed the previous colour-scheme, the painting would fit in better with the existing set?
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| 4 Animal Avataars with "Deep Blue/ Night Sky Background" for Leo instead of "Yellow-Gold" |
Anyway, this concludes my first 4 Avataars, till the Cenozoic Era, and 'Life' has transitioned from water to land, starting from invertebrates and ending with high-intelligence mammals. The next avataars will course the journey of the evolution of man. Hopefully, I can get the paintings out soon.
Let me know what you think!
Bombay Love!!
Lockdown Peace
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P.S. Please don't use my art without giving proper credits. Many thanks :)
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