From Tantra to Tribal : Asian Art in London 2022

Shaligrams are a particular type of stone collected from the riverbank of the Kali-Gandaki , a tributary of the river Gandaki in Nepal. These stones are typically fossils of ammonite shells and are revered by Hindus as important ritual objects.  They are understood as non-anthropomorphic representations of  various manifestations of the god Vishnu. The Pranatoshani Tantra outlines a complex list of features that categorises the stones and identifies which type of stones represent the various aspects of the deity.  Painted charts such as the current example identify the various shapes that the religious texts outline.  The current chart was one of a larger series  of paintings and was produced in the second half of the 20th century in Northern India.  Although this example is of comparatively recent manufacture, it reflects a traditon of representing these Shaligrams in painted form that certainly dates back to the 18th century.