ARTIST MASOOD HUSSAIN IS DOING A SERIES ON LALLESHWARI OR LAL-DED ..

                                                                                 

ARTIST MASOOD HUSSAIN IS DOING A SERIES ON LALLESHWARI OR LAL-DED ..

In his recent body of work, Masood Hussain turns to the evocative medium of Pashmina to depict Lal Ded, reimagining her as both a spiritual presence and an embodied cultural memory. By rendering her upon this intimate, wearable fabric, he draws the mystic into the sphere of lived experience, transforming her from a distant poetic voice into a tactile and immediate encounter. Hussain is producing a series of remarkable paintings inspired by the vakhs of Lal Ded, employing a vibrant palette that articulates the depth of her Tantric consciousness and the philosophical nuance of Shaiva-darshana. He further elevates this vision by presenting her as a Shiva yogini, underscoring her grounding in Kashmir’s Shaivism and the rigours of Tantra -sadhana. Simultaneously, his use of Nastaliq script extends her accessibility to audiences beyond the Devanagari-reading tradition, while delicately bridging cultural sensibilities.

MY COMMENTARY ON THIS PAINTING

This evocative work by Masood Hussain presents a deeply layered visual meditation on Lal Ded, revered as Lalleshwari, the Shiva Yogini, capturing not merely her image but the inner cartography of her Tantric realisation within the framework of Kashmir Shaivism. The fragmented, almost torn surface of the painting immediately suggests the dissolution of ego and the breaking of conditioned identity, a necessary rupture along the path of Sadhana. Along the lower plane, Lal Ded appears in seven sequential forms, each seated in meditative stillness before rising flames, representing the seven stages of Tantra-sadhana,each fire symbolising Tapas ( fire used for spiritual austerity/purification /penance ), the fierce inner heat of purification through which the seeker is gradually refined. Above each form, luminous halos interwoven with intricate Tantric geometry and mandalas signify ascending states of consciousness, mapping her journey from embodied awareness to subtle, cosmic realisation. The artist’s use of colour is particularly striking and deeply symbolic: the progression across the composition moves through a spectrum of reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues and violets, subtly evoking the ascent through inner energy centres, while the intense reds and fiery oranges at the base convey both destruction and renewal through spiritual heat. Cooler tones—blues and deep indigos—suggest inward stillness and expanded awareness, while the interplay of contrasting hues creates a dynamic tension between turbulence and harmony, mirroring the process of awakening itself. The upper abstract expanse, rendered in bold, almost explosive strokes of colour, further intensifies this effect, suggesting the uncontainable nature of liberated consciousness beyond form. This visual narrative finds its poetic and philosophical anchor in the Vaakh inscribed below in Nastaliq script:

“Onkar yeli layi anum,
Vuhi korum panun paan,
Shai vot traavith sath maarg rotum,
Teli Lall ba vaatchis prakaash-sthaan.”

“I set my mortal frame aflame with the fire of devotion,
When I mastered the mystic syllable Om;
Abandoning the sixfold paths of the mind,
I journeyed alone into the seventh,
The hidden way; only there,
In that luminous sanctum, did I, Lallā,
Behold the radiant abode of Light.”

This verse becomes the interpretive key to the entire composition, the fire below is the very fire she invokes, the seven figures mirror her passage beyond the “sixfold paths” into the hidden seventh, and the radiant geometries above echo the Prakaash Sthaan, the abode of light, not as a physical destination but as awakened consciousness itself. Through the use of Nastaliq script, Hussain both connects diverse cultural and spiritual lineages and brings Lall Ded closer to those outside the Devanagari-reading tradition. Ultimately, this is not a static portrait but a living spiritual diagram, a visual exegesis of Lal Ded’s realisation, where fire, form, geometry, colour and word converge to express the timeless journey from the self to the infinite light of Shiva.

(Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.