Adi Lakshmi

This is a beautiful oleograph of the Goddess Adi Lakshmi by the artist G.V. Venkatesh Rao from the early 1900s. This is the original avatar of the Divine Mother Lakshmi, when she is invoked from the churning of the ocean. In this form she is considered the origin of all existence. The Goddess is depicted with four hands and standing on a lotus. She holds in her hands a lotus, a white flag, a conch and the last hand is in the Varada Mudra, which represents the dispensing of boons. Unusually, she is depicted here in a white sari, as she is usually shown wearing red.
Venktash Rao was one of the well-known artists who worked for the Ravi Varma Press. Ravi Varma was a celebrated Indian painter and artist who started a printing press in 1894 in Mumbai to produce high-end chromolithographs for a wider audience.