While looking through some press photographs I have come to learn of a Hindu diety of whom I was previously unaware. Behold Biswakarma, the Hindu god of architecture and machinery:
Biswakarma, or Vishkarma, was the architect of Dwarka, the city that was built for Lord Krishna. Today he is commemorated all over India, and particularly in the industrial cities, by those who work with tools and factory machinery. [Link]
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He seems to be somewhat of an equivalent to the Roman God Vulcan (or the Greek God Hephaestus).
What caught my attention however was the freaky-ass picture you see below. It is of an artist getting things ready for the Biswakarma Puja on September 17th. I’ve actually had a few nightmares that looked something like this.
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I would HATE to be in this room when they turn off the lights |
People worship the implements with which they earn their daily bread and artisans clean their tools and repaint old machines. Shop floors and factories are decorated for the occasion, loud speakers blare out music and the image of Biswakarma and his faithful elephant can be seen everywhere.
Biswakarma is the divine architect of the whole universe, regarded as the supreme worker and the personification of the creative power that holds heaven and earth together. He has four hands, carrying a water-pot, a book, a noose and craftsman’s tools. All the divine weapons such as chariots that are traditionally possessed by the gods are his creation. [Link]
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p>Yes, you guessed it. As professional bloggers we will be worshiping our computers and will have our monkeys re-paint the bunker on September 17th.
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“As soon as this paint dries we will come alive. Muhahaha!” |
The pictures above caused my PTSD to flare up because they reminded me of the Sanjusangendo Temple in Kyoto that I visited back in 2004. You couldn’t pay me enough to work under these conditions. 
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Sanjusangendo Temple in Kyoto, Japan |
Vishwakarma rocks! I used to love posters of him b/c he was holding a ruler in them. Engineering Deva!
He is also the carver of Lord Jaganath, and conspired arrangements such that Lord Jaganath takes His current, unique form.
Awesome photos. Awesome!
All the recent comments about how Bollywood promotes a light-skinned “ideal” that isn’t representative of most Indians, make photo of the dark hand painting the light brown statue especially compelling to me.
if i remember correctly, a couple of years ago when Laloo Prasad Yadav was under pressure and criticized for some problems on Indian Railways, he said blame Lord Vishwakarma, not me, or something like that.
here’s the link: Laloo blames Vishwakarma
gorgeous photos, and just freaky enough to perhaps make a SM banner out of…
But of course… 🙂
Well the next time I slack at work – I know who I am blaming!
Monkeys flinging poo is funny, err, if that’s what you mean by ‘re-painting’.
That’s one day of the year when kids in India get to tour and see the plants where their parents, usually their fathers, work.
scareey man, scareeey. nuffa de picha fi make a hole nightmaarre naa, me say. me no wan see no ghos inna de room naa8=)
Um, seriously? Because when I was a kid I used to have nightmares of Shiva Nataraja “walking like an Egyptian” – except instead of a dwarf, he was dancing on me. It was some scary shiz.
Tonight I am going to try REALLY HARD to dream about this Nataraja pictured on your blog dancing on me.
Tonight I am going to try REALLY HARD to dream about this Nataraja pictured on your blog dancing on me.
Me, too. Hips in dreams.
a drive-by posting.
remembering vishvakarma may happen in th enorthern parts – but down south – it is called thiruvalluvar day – i believe ayudha puja (prayer to the weapons) is another ritual for the day. thiruvalluvar day is celebrated as part of the week long onam festival … not to be confused with pongal btw, as i always did when a kid in anticipation of sweetened rice, which corresponds to sankranti in the northern part of india.
which corresponds to sankranti in the northern part of india
in south india also it is called sankranti… atleast in karnataka
ok… the grey from in my head’s bled onto the hair… my memory’s not what it used to be.
thiruvalluvar –> pongal –> January
onam –> coincides with vishvakarma day –> september
i ALWAYS confused pongal and onam… AAAgh
Ha! Good call.
So now I guess when I pass street vendors in India, I’ll be seeing statuettes of Viswakarma along side of the Ganeshas sitting in front of computers, holding cell phones, and operating cash registers (I kid you not, I’ve seen these with my own eyes).
Ayudam also means implement. The day to repaint the bunker computers is indeed Ayuda pooja. On that day, factories (and sweatshops, in the case of the SM bunker) would stop working and the workers would worship the machines. The non-Hindu workers also seemed quite happy to participate (atleast, their kids happily ate the sweets). Power plants, milk processing and other essential services were exempt.
Do Ayuda puja and saraswathi puja fall on the same day? Would work-study-s do both 🙂 ?
Hairy_d, Thiruvalluvar day is quite minor even within TN, isn’t it? It’s certainly not observed in any South Indian state other than TN.
Happy Pongal to all da mallus in the house
Onam, I meant, lol. I’ve got Valluvar on the brain.
Vishvakarma is the celestial designer/fabricator/engineer/architect who works on a grand cosmic scale, of the order of a few billion galaxies I suppose! He designed and built Indraprastha for the Pandavas and built so many clever things into the palace that it became one hell of a mean place to walk through. It ended up making the Kaurava’s palace in Hastinapaur built by Mayavi (Vishvakarma’s doppelganger) look pretty ordinary not ornery. When the Kauaravas took their first tour through the Panadavas’ pad, they ended up making asses of themselves. One hall seemed to go on forever but actually led to a cul de sac, the next one looked like it was flooded, but when dudes hitched up their mundus Mallu/Tamil style and tried to wade thru they found it was bone dry! So they walked bravely into the next hall that appeared clean and dry only to find themselves in chest deep slush. The next hall seemed unfinished and the bad dudes were now intent on dusting it up. But lo! when they walked in they found it had such a smooth surface that they slipped and fell flat on their rears. Worse still this hall was ringed by balconies of the anthappuram aka zenana And just as Duryodhana and Co. were struggling to stand up they found the ladies led by Draupadi had all along watching the spectacle from the balconies and were now laughing their guts out.
you must be right… but i am not an expert – i got to know because i asked about the vermillion markings on computers and doors. i would be interested if this is also practised by tamil folk in karnataka and sri lanka.
it is interesting to see the pan-indian convergence of tradition .. because ayuda puja is a noted bengali practice – so wiki suggest (i had only know nof it in the tamil context so i was surprised) – it seems to be practised on a specific day in navaratri.
anyone have any scoop on the broad context – is it jst a coincidence that they all converge to the same window of the year.
Duuude, how couldja miss the God of Engineering? Forget St. Patrick – Vishwakarma’s my main man. Er, deity.
Seriously, though – my grandmother kept a murti of Vishwakarma at the family altar specifically because of the many men in the family of my dad’s generation who studied engineering…and she was quite proud to finally add a grand-daughter to her litany of prayers to Vishwakarma. 🙂
It ended up making the Kaurava’s palace in Hastinapaur built by Mayavi
Are you sure? I thought Mayavi built Indraprastha after Krishna and Arjun saved him when Agnidev needed to swallow a forest b/c he’d had too much to ghee, but Maya lived in the forest, so he took asylum of Krishna and Arjun and in return built Indraprastha?
Looks like there are champions of both Vishwakarma and Maya as mythical builder of Indraprastha (http://ignca.nic.in/ps_01011.htm) vs (http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/aa092401.htm)
and more on the Maya/Vishwakarma connection…
from Wikipedia: Maya is also the name of an Asura, who was the father-in-law of the Lord of Lanka, Ravana and the father of Mandodari. He is the archnemesis of Vishwakarma, the celestial architect of the Gods. His knowledge and skills are compatible with Vishwakarma. When Lanka was destroyed by Hanuman, it was the King of Demons, Maya, who had re-installed the beauty of that Island Kingdom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(illusion)
Also found this interesting page on Visvakarmans (smiths in SI) and their worldview: http://ignca.nic.in/ps_01011.htm in which Maya is the archetypal carpenter
Great post and great photos!
How cool is it that there’s a god of Engineering! As for Saraswathi, would Athena be her equivalent in Greek mythology?
Shiva, thanks for describing this scene. I’ve seen this in an old movie – kinda 1950’s feel to it. Don’t remember if it was Hindi or Tamil, the Kauravas falling all over the place and getting laughed at. That was a lot of fun. What a resource those movies are! At the time they were being made, there were so many ‘God’ movies, it was painful.
It’s a pity the special effects generation of movie makers is not picking up these stories the way Hollywood has picked up, say, The Lord of the Rings.
Saheli,
Aami bhool korlaam. Kshama korun (Is that right?) It is Maya (Mayavi we say in the Tamizh narration of the Kaurava’s visit to Indraprastha which is a fairly long tale in itself) and not Vishvakarma who built Indraprastha (and Dvaraka earlier for Krishna)
Arjuna said,–‘O sinless one, thou regardest thyself as saved (by me) from imminent death. Even if it hath been so, I cannot make thee do anything for me. At the same time, O Danava, I do not wish to frustrate thy intentions. Do thou something for Krishna. That will be a sufficient requital for my services to thee.’…Vasudeva reflected for a moment as to what he should ask Maya to accomplish. Krishna, the Lord of the universe and the Creator of every object, having reflected in his mind, thus commanded Maya,–‘Let a palatial sabha (meeting hall) as thou choosest, be built (by thee), if thou, O son of Diti, who art the foremost of all artists, desirest to do good to Yudhishthira the just. Indeed, build thou such a palace that persons belonging to the world of men may not be able to imitate it even after examining it with care, while seated within. And, O Maya, build thou a mansion in which we may behold a combination of godly, asuric and human designs.’
Just got off the phone with an engineer in India. Apparently, Vishwakarma and Ayuda pooja are both performed in his company and they are 2 days apart. Only one day off work, though. Saraswathi pooja is indeed on the same day as Ayuda pooja. These and other poojas falling around this time are together called Pooja Holidays.
Awesome Shiva, thanks for finding the quote. I luvs me my Mahabharat.
Also confirmed that hairy_d was right. V Pooja is mainly done by Northies in said engineer’s factory and A Pooja mainly by the Southies.
As for Saraswathi, would Athena be her equivalent in Greek mythology?
Yes, Sarawathi would be something of an equivalent of Athena, since she is the Goddess of learning, but Athena is also the goddess of war. She has a very different character, for instance, in the Iliad than Sarawathi has in the Indian myths.
Metis might be more of an equivalent, but I think there are really no real “equivalent”s at all between the Indian and the Greek gods. This is as opposed to, say, the near-equivalence of many of the Greek and Roman gods. For one thing, the Indian as well as Greek gods are associated with different qualities, have different histories and have quite different characters. Even as personification of virtues or forces of nature, they are quite different. In terms of myth, their characterization is often quite different. As another example, consider Krishna who was called the Indian Herakles by Megasthenes. Despite superficial similarities, they are quite different. Herakles is arrogant, impetuous, and bordering on insane at times, hardly the sort of character you would expect to find deified. Krishna, on the other hand, is, well, Krishna 🙂
Vishwakarma jaganadham / Vishwakarma jagadhgurum /Vishwakarma jagathejham / Vishwakarma mayam jagath //
Vishwakarma jaganadham / Vishwakarma jagadhgurum /Vishwakarma jagathejham / Vishwakarma mayam jagath //
Black smith…Meturlogist Sculpture…..Geologist Carpenter…..Biologist Utensilmaker..Engineer Goldsmith…..Scientist all the five are his sons, any one can add more precise information………………….!
Concept Brahma or siva were not in veda. Viswakarma was the supream god in vedic period who created brhmanda [all visible things].He is also known as Prajapathy,Virad purusha,hyranyagarbha ,Concept of Padmanabha is first seen in Viswakarma sooktham of rigveda[10-81,82] and 2nd anuvaka of Purusha sooktham.
adbhyassambhoota: prthivyai rasAcca | vishvakarmaNassamavartatAdhi | tasya tvaSHTA vidadhadroopameti | tatpuruSHasya vishvamAjAnamagre ||
Later during the 2nd revival of hinduism vaisnavites plagiyarised most aspects of viswakarma to visnu, who was a demi-god in vedic period. Present day viswakarma is the 4th rsi [Abhuvana silp viswakarma]of viswabrahmana parampara. Durgadas,Kerala