Dus Mahavidyas : Ten Creative Forces, Ten Contemporary Women Artists

Contents: Hymn to the Goddess. Preface. Foreword. 1. Dus Mahavidyas, Keshav Malik. 2. Shobha Broota. 3. Saba Hasan. 4. Kavita Jaiswal. 5. Sangeeta Gupta. 6. Arpana Caur. 7. Jaya Ganguly. 8. Seema Kohli. 9. Gina Brezini. 10. Shanta Rao. 11. Pooja Iranna. 12. Ravi Kumar. 13. Keshav Malik. 

From the Preface : Dus Mahavidyas is a project, which honours, celebrates and acknowledges the Creative Women. Book presents ten artists as diverse and unique in their creativity as the expressions of the divine feminine itself. In the past, women artists have often been denied their rightful place. All the artists selected for this project, have succeeded in giving an original form to their artistic expression, while preserving the connection to their roots and participating actively in the artistic debates in a world larger and more open than ever before.

We are witnessing today a continual metamorphosis accounting for the richness of art. Western art flows softly like a powerful river, absorbing various tributaries along the way, without ever changing its rhythm. Indian art has differed from the styles and pictorial values that govern the ever changing aesthetics of the West. This metamorphosis transforms the many influences, which shape this seminal dialogue between East and West.

And what language could be more universal than the language of painting, especially, when it sends forth a primordial message, resonating powerfully into the most diverse and most contemporary of chords. The modulation of this long tone springs from the rock-paintings of Bhimbedtka, makes its way through the carvings of Ellora, and the frescos of Ajanta, reaching out to infinity to give us just that right pitch that we get to witness in the artworks presented in this book.

This sustained sound arising from the depth of centuries needs to be seen as well as to be heard. It manifests decisively in the seemingly different works of all the artists selected for this project.