Petrarchive – The Iconography of Lord Jagannath

Here's an illustration of Lord Jagannath with his siblings, his brother Balabhadra and his sister Subhadra. Lord Jagannath always has a black face, Balabhadra always has a white face, and Subhadra has a yellow face. The trio is commonly worshiped together.

Here's one more of the trio

This is my favorite image of Lord Jaggannath, depicted here as the Supreme Being. The form of the deity is composed of scenes from Hindu mythology, with the ten forms of Lord Vishnu making up his crown.

This looks like a soyjak

>>6767
It's a simple deception, about as abstract as Hindu art gets. To me he looks like a happy guy!

>6769
>deception
depiction, sorry

Without wishing to be rude, Hindu iconography and art has always struck me as being so over-the-top and so gaudy as to be unable to be taken seriously. It looks to me like something a very young child might make.

There's also zero emotional connection, though perhaps this is because I am not a Hindu.

Here is the European tradition for contrast. This is a Piero della Francesca painting.

>>6772
It's drug art at its core like Mesoamerican art. You gotta appreciate it on that level, apples and oranges, etc.

Hindu bas-relief and architectural art might appeal to your sensibilities?

This is the same god as what is sometimes called in English 'Juggernaut', is it not?

I know there is some unusual tradition where they make massive rolling statues of him and then sort of play chicken with the wheels as it rolls through the streets.

>>6766
That one is really nice. I assume it's a formless god?
>>6772
It's always looked overwhelming to me, there's just tons going on most of the time. The simplicity of OP's design helps alleviate that imo

I find Hinduism to be interesting, as its the most popular "pagan" religion (by which, I only mean non Abrahamic) still existing and I know practically nothing about it.

>>6773
>It's drug art
This resonates with my experience. One time I was high and I saw a bas-relief of multi-armed Krishna and it might as well have been an animated gif. I still wish I could find that image

One thing I like about Jagganath is that his worship originated in the tribal veneration of trees, which was later subsumed into the larger framework of the all-pervading Narayana. I like the idea that the all pervading God is both the creator and emerges from the biosphere.