An Indian Magical Drawing: A Yantra with Elephant, Diagrams, Spells

$220.00 USD

mid twentieth century
12" x 14 3/4", 30.5 cm x 37.5 cm

This is an Indian drawing in the form of a yantra, a supernatural diagram that is drawn to appeal to a god or goddess; the drawing is said to possess occult power that is targeted to achieve certain results.

This one seems to have been drawn to provoke divine intervention, possibly for help in healing, in a spiritual quest or for casting some kind of spell.

At its center is what appears to be an elephant in the middle of an open lotus. This is surrounded by a frame symbolizing the four directions, or so it is claimed. Around this are lines of Devanagari script, curling about the central image, and probably written to aid in invoking some kind of divine power. The outermost frame shows crudely drawn arcs, perhaps an attempt to suggest lotus petals, which appear often in yantras.

The drawing is laid on a thicker paper stock as the paper of the original drawing would have been too brittle and shaggy to have survived without having been mounted.

Mysterious and beautiful.

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