Yantra I photo etching and chine collé
(size: 68cm x 114cm) £320
Yantra II photo etching and chine collé
(size: 68cm x 114cm) £320
Yantra III photo etching
(size: 53cm x 76cm) £180
Yantra IV lithograph
(size: 54cm x 69cm) £240
Whilst travelling in India I had collected a vast assortment of prayer books. But it was in Varanasi (the most auspicious place to die) that I discovered inan old, dusty box in a backstreet, this rare book of yantras. I took it to the British Museum where it was confirmed that not only was the book too old to decipher the sanskrit, but that the only other example that they had seen was in the British Library and dated from the 1700s!
Yantras were often handed out by holy men rather like doctor's prescriptions, only these would be 'custom made' to deal, for example, with a troublesome daughter-in-law, impotency, bad cooking or even ants in your larder. Yantras are a combination of Mantras (prayers) and Yuntras (drawings). Yantras are visual instructions on how to deliver a particular prayer or spell. Used in conjunction with other activities, such as Puja and performing certain rituals, reciting mantras brings together the most potent of forces.
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