Dasavataram-The Ten Hindu Heroes

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“Whenever Dharma is endangered in the World
I shall Incarnate
Restablish Dharma, Law and Order
and
Protect the Good and
destroy the Evil Elements of the Society."

In the course 'Aesthetics of Re-use' at college, we learnt the use of different forms to represent our work, like paper electronics, E-embroidery and so on. Paper electronics caught my fancy and I planned to make my final project using this versatile method. There was no such topic that the project had to be made on, it just had to include one of the methods we had learnt during the course and should also have a cultural aspect to it.

The Hindu mythology, Dasavataram or the Ten avatars of Vishnu has always been one of my favourite. Even as a child when ever I would visit the temple and look at the carvings and paintings of this mythology, it always made me wonder about how it could have happened.

My grandparents would always ask me and my cousins the order of the avatars and one who got it right first would get an extra sweet during lunch. I somehow never managed to get the order right.

All these thoughts came back to me when I was looking for the perfect topic, finally I chose to create a simple illustrated book on these Ten Hindu Heroes for children. And to make it more interactive, each avatar had an important part of him lighting up.

Process:

After a series of researching and rough sketching, I chose to represent my avatars using the 'Kalighat' form of painting. This form of Indian art is simple, straightforward and also colourful.

After creating final illustrations, the second stage was the circuiting. With help from my facilitator, Ms.Alisha I finally got the hang of circuiting the avatars. Each avatar had a window around his head to form a 'Halo' and one of his 'Astra' or weapon. these were the parts that would light up. The lights that I used were surface mount LEDs which are small yet very effective.

The Avatars- Lit up in their glory

Each avatar had atleast two areas that lit up. To help understand their stories better I also added a tinted sheet before each avatar had inscribed a concise version of the story. This tinted sheet also protected the illustration.