Abundance is Bright: Celebrating Goddess Lakshmi & Diwali

Through this Handmade Storybook, I share how I have learned about Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity, through art and stories all around me.

And how so many others, who are part of Studio PAUSE, helped me tell the stories!

— Sushmita Mazumdar, artist

When I was invited to create a bookmaking activity for Asia After Dark: Diwali Festival at the National Museum of Asia Art, an after-hours event on Nov 1, 2024 where the museum is lit up in celebration of light overcoming darkness, I remembered an image of the Hindu god Vishnu, in the collections of the same museum. He stands in the middle, with the goddess Lakshmi on his right, and the goddess Saraswati on his left. It reminded me that I had created a book celebrating Saraswati back in 2009, titled “Rest is Sweet,” as I was teaching myself to be a book artist (photos, below). Putting the book inside a typical box of sweets offered to the goddess, I wanted to share stories with my American children about how I remembered and shared stories about our Indian heritage, members of our extended family, and how celebrations evolve as I live outside my home country and they grow up American.

Now, in 2024, I would create one about Lakshmi!

What would it be?

Rest is Sweet (closed), a Handmade Storybook by Sushmita Mazumdar, 2009

Rest is Sweet (open), a Handmade Storybook by Sushmita Mazumdar, 2009

As I pulled out all my Diwali stuff, put away in a cabinet to be used on one moonless night in the year, I found many items which reminded me of the stories I wanted to share. As I worked with my artist friend LouLou, who would make a video for the project, I explained things to her about the goddess and how she brings us abundance.

And so I created a Handmade Storybook titled “Abundance is Bright: Celebrating Goddess Lakshmi & Diwali.” Through this book I share how I have learned about Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity, through art and stories all around me. And how so many others who are part of Studio PAUSE, helped me tell the stories too! And how they understand the things the goddess symbolizes.

Lakshmi is worshipped every day, especially during Diwali, and people light lamps so she can see their homes on this moonless night and shower them with blessings. In the bookmaking workshop I created, visitors learn about the many stories about the goddess and how she is depicted in many ways in art and sculpture by picking the stories or art that catch their fancy, creating their own version of the book. The book itself, just like the older book Rest is Sweet, is itself inspired by the traditional Indian palm-leaf manuscript. Before paper came to India books were written on palm leaves. Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain texts used this format and after paper, they continued to make this thin and long books of stacked pages.

Stories:

The community is part of my social practice as an artist. Many who are part of my life and my Studio inform my work, discuss, and collaborate, and in this book I include the art and stories they shared with me. They will attend the event if possible, to see how sharing their art and stories with others is so inspiring. I am so thankful for their questions, their guidance, and their immense talents.

Sarita Regmi and her friends Usha and Deelasha created a rangoli at the Studio to celebrate Diwali 2023. The friends are all from Nepal and had fun creating this impromptu design on the floor using colorful sand while the rest of us watched. We learned that Diwali, or Deepavali, is also celebrated in Nepal.

Amar Shekdar studies my new book, Shakti, looking at various ways Lakshmi is depicted in Indian art. He is an old friend and was visiting from New Zealand. He used to paint a lot when he worked as an art teacher and when we chatted over FaceTime he would show me his paintings. But he hadn’t painted in a while. It was fun to see him get excited about the book so I asked him to make the main artwork for it. He worked on it in his home in Wellington!

LouLou Marino took many of the photos of objects that tell the stories of Diwali. She is working on a video about the project as well. Having lived in Asia, she remembered how many incense sticks she had seen when she visited temples there. So I included her photo and story. Here, LouLou photographs in the Buckingham Studio

Tanya Gupta came to the US nine years ago and has missed celebrating her Bengali Indian culture. When I asked her to help me make the alpona, a Bengali decorative design done on the floor with a mixture of rice flour and water, she was very excited! That day her family called her and when she told them about the project, they remembered many old celebration stories and her mom shared a design. Turns out, her mom’s name is Alpana (same word, differently spelled.) Here, Tanya makes the alpona outside the Columbia Pike studio

Photos & Video

Below are photos of some stories which are featured in the book.

A gateway in Udaipur, India, with auspicious motifs, including a woman with the purnaghata, a full vessel, including water and vegetation like mango leaves and a coconut. The full vessel is a symbol of Lakshmi as she is also the source of all life.

Siddhapratima Yantra, or Shrine to the Perfected Being, is a small object from the Jain tradition in the collection of the National Museum of Asian Art. Here we see Lakshmi on the top, flanked by elephants.

Diyas or clay lamps on the window in my Studio. Here I use wax tealights because these ordinary and inexpensive clay diyas, traditionally filled with oil and a wick, would get ruined and then where would I get more? I would have to visit India during Diwali to get more!

Close-up of Lakshmi from a sculpture I call the Mumbai Triad, where Ganesha, the elephant-headed god is in the center, Lakshmi is on his left, and Saraswati is on his right. My mother gave me this when I opened my studio.

Diwali stuff I pulled out from my cabinet one day as I started to imagine what stories and art I would share in my book. It got the juices flowing and me explaining things to LouLou as she filmed in that gorgeous fall afternoon sunlight.

Artist Tanya Gupta makes an alpona, a traditional design from the Bengali culture of India, using powdered rice flour and water. The design, done at the threshold, includes a simple depiction of the feet of goddess Lakshmi, welcoming her to enter the home or place of business.

Asia After Dark: Diwali

Friday, Nov 1, 2024
at National Museum of Asian Art, Washington D.C.

PAUSErs at the Museum: On the day of the event, we had 3 PAUSErs helping teach the bookmaking activity with Sushmita. Before that, LouLou and Sush also picked up PAUSErs from Barcroft Apartments who are part of the book project, like Sarita and her kids, Usha and her son, and Deelasha. Nazneen also came along. They drove to the metro, parked, and took the Metro in. At the museum Tanya, Dewey, Jay, and John joined them. From Bowie, MD, Kalisia and her sons came in as well. Sushmita has always tried to get people, especially immigrants, to institutions in DC which she has enjoyed like the Smithsonian museums and the Kennedy Center etc. Once, a man from Eritrea, who she took to the National Museum of African Art had exclaimed, “Who was going to tell me this was here?” So it was cool when Dewey noticed how many PAUSErs had attended—people he had only met at the Studio!

Making the Book: The set of printouts had a title page and 2 pages with panels with stories about Lakshmi and Diwali. Visitors were invited to pick 6 of the 12 stories which intrigued them—it could be the story or the image which they liked. They then cut out the 6 panels along the lines. Next, they fold the title page into an accordion. They attach one panel of the 6 to the back of each panel on the title page, using double-sided tape and string. In the end, add the lotus beads to the ends of the string. You will be assembling a book inspired by the traditional Indian palm-leaf manuscript used in Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu traditions. — Sushmita Mazumdar, artist, Arlington, VA 2024.

Numbers: There were a record number of visitors! We made over 200 books with double the number of people, even as parents, grandparents, friends, spouses sat watching, collaborating, and chatting with the ones making the book. From the museum we heard that their final door count number from 5:30pm onwards was 4,785 visitors and that doesn’t include those who only stayed outside on the plaza. It was great to see so many visitors enjoying the storybook activity!

Photos and Videos: Thanks to the PAUSErs for the photos and videos. Through each other we see things we missed seeing! Thanks Nazneen, LouLou, John, and Dewey.