Friday, May 8, 2009

Ratha Yatra Parade


The famous Ratha Yatra festival takes place annually in Jagannatha Puri, Orissa, India. On this day, the Deity of Jagannatha rides on a chariot, surrounded by flowers and devotional chants. The English word "juggernaut" ("relentless, irresistible force") comes directly from the Sanskrit word "Jagannatha." I remember my intrigue whenever my father referred to anything as a "juggernaut."
So here is the original Jagannatha, encompassed by flowers and festivity. This is a 4 by 6 linocut, splashed with *live* watercolor! : )

4 comments:

steve said...

Wonderful lino Nicola! So good to see some work from you again. Love the story behind this piece.

ArtSparker said...

Jaya Jagannatha. Very charming, and now I know something I didn;t know before.

aimee said...

i thought of your beautiful linocuts this week - the current issue of HOW magazine has a special section on printing by hand, and they had a feature on carving linocuts. it looks incredibly difficult!

justdoodleit said...

This was one of our favorite quizzing trivia along with other words from the Indian culture like Mulligatawny and Pariah. Cool lino cuts of Panchatantra as well :) Namaste!