As the god embodiment of good fortune, material wealth, power, love, and abundance, Lakshmi prospers as the principal goddess in Hinduism, forming the powerful triad of ‘Tridevi’ with Parvati and Saraswati. Venerated in Shaivism, Vaishnavism, and Shaktism, she assists the pantheon of Hindu gods with her divine energy or Shakti and is usually presented in an elegantly dressed posture over a lotus.
Her iconography is detailed in texts like the Lakshmi Saharanama of the Skanda Purana, the Lakshmi Tantra, the Markandeya Purana, and others, and allows us to bear witness to this seated bronze ‘panchaloha’ image of hers. Her posture is that of the yogic ‘padamasana,’ allowing her to keep both her legs folded on top of each other, and her back upright and straight. The four-handed image of Lakshmi here is seen holding two lotuses in the back – symbolising the attaining of knowledge, self-realisation, liberation, reality, consciousness, and karma – and the front two hands are in the fear dispelling ‘abhaya mudra’ gesture and the boon granting ‘varada mudra’ gesture. There is a sense of grace and purity that is associated with not just the lotus but the relaxed manner of Lakshmi’s presentation, who is majestically seated on top of a raised platform. Lakshmi’s four arms are further symbolic of the four goals of Hinduism – dharma, artha, kama, and moksha.
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