विश्वनाथ Vishwanath

I share this short narrative only to verbalize the ideas that inspired this piece. The idea of art is to create the same bhava in the observer. Art makes you experience a bhava while language rationalizes it. Hence, language is, by its very nature, reductive. And if one is not careful, it can sometimes act against the very bhava that the art attempts to create. I pray that adding this description will only enhance the experience of the art:

वागर्थाविव संपृक्तौ वागर्थप्रतिपत्तये ।

जगतः पितरौ वन्दे पार्वतीपरमेश्वरौ ॥

COMMENTARY
This piece was inspired by a recent visit to the Kashi Vishwnath temple. No one knows how old the city of Kashi or the temple is, but it is well known that between 1194CE and 1669CE the temple was brutally demolished several times by the barbaric bigotry of Islamic invaders. This history of violence and hate is still palpable in the ruins of what is now the Gyanvapi Mosque. But despite centuries of oppression, it is as though the quite observers across centuries, Nandi & Tripathagamini (Ganga), are making Dharma rise again and making Kashi Vishwanath re-emerge in its full glory. This piece is a tribute to those who have laid down their lives protecting the sacred over the centuries, and to the innumerable rishis and munis who have energized the place with tapas over several millennia!

The shloka on the art is the 8th charanam of SriVishwanatha Ashtakam written by Adi Sankara. It seems to guide the sadhakas who come to “वारणसीपुर”