India Crafters | Artistic - Unique - Carved

Thursday 26 January 2012

Indian Gods Statues

Indian gods’ statues can be easily procured online, but for those of you who do not belong to India or are not Hindus, this can be quite a task considering the fact that there are over a thousand prominent deities worshipped in the religion. A few well-known gods and goddesses are Lord Krishna, Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesh, Lord Rama, Lord Vishnu, Lord Hanuman, Goddess Lakshmi, Goddess Saraswati, Lord Nataraj, and Goddess Durga. Reading up on these gods can give you a much better idea of what they stand for and their significance in this ancient religion. While, you will find that many statues or pictures of the same deity differ from one another in many ways, there are always some similarities that a trained eye can point out. For example, Lord Krishna will always have a peacock feather in his crown.

The peacock feather has more than seven colours within it and it is believed that all these colours signify the lord being the universe itself. The black stands for night, blue for the skies in daylight, gold for the sun, and so on. While, this may be fascinating there is an interesting story of how lord Krishna came to wear peacock feathers on his head. The mythical tale goes something like this.

When one day Krishna woke first from a rest in the forest with his cowherd friends, he decided to wake everyone and call the cows grazing at a distance by playing his flute. Since, the lord was a great flute player, the second his lips touched the wooden instrument, a melodious sound that had a soothing deep rhythm came rushing out of its end. The beautiful music enchanted the peacocks living in and around the hills, and they began to dance and rejoice in the sound of the lord’s melody. The king of the peacocks then came to the lord and thanked him for the divine gesture by touching his feet. Lord Krishna was so pleased with the sight of dancing peacocks and their gratefulness that he too started dancing amongst them. The spectacle was extremely splendid when seen from the top of the Govardhan hills, the heaven and even the netherland. This went on for many days and when all grew tired and eventually stopped, the peacock king came to the lord and said, “You have created a festival of bliss for which we remain eternally indebted. I request you to accept our only opulence, our plumage as a gift. Wear them on your crown as decoration" and dropped many feathers. The lord lovingly accepted the humble offering and wore a few on his crown and continued wearing them since then.

There are many other stories about Lord Krishna and other gods and goddesses. If you are looking for Indian gods’ statues, it may helpful to go through a few to help you decide which statue you want to buy.

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