målning, glasmålning, painting

Glass painting with a wooden frame. Niklas Foxeus: "Dimensions: 35 X 40 cm Motif: Fire-headed Brahma (white) seated on his swan, his knight beast (vahana). The Creator God in the Hindu Trinity (trimurti), where Vishnu is the sustainer of creation and Shiva its destroyer. They form three personified aspects of the eternal, cosmic world soul brahman. (Stutley, 1977: 48.) Initially, however, Brahma had five heads. Brahma, Shiva’s father, humiliated Shiva at one point, who became insane and from whose anger Bhairava then emerged, as with his left thumbnail high of Brahma’s fifth head. As Brahma is counted as belonging to the Brahmin, Bhairava was thus guilty of brahmin murder. According to another version (Mahabharata) of this myth, the Shiva of Brahma’s fifth head, because this showed an undue interest in Sarasvati, Brahma’s daughter, and in other words was a punishment for incest. (Wilkins, 1997: 99 f.) Ritual hand posture (mudra): Brahma’s right hand (upper) in abhaya-mudra/hasta, expressing patronage; the left (upper) in varada hasta, meaning a giving of blessing. (Rao, 1914: 14.) Iconographic details: Brahma bears a golden, jewel-obsessed crown (kirita-mukuta) on all (visible) heads (three pieces). Around his wrists he wears bracelets (kankana), in his right hand (lower) he holds a necklace (grind) and in the left (lower) a trumpet snack (sankha)."