Aparita Bhandari

When the discussion of yantra — a meditative tool — came up, I noticed the yantras’ similarities with chaukis. Each Hindu deity has a yantra form, and

one of the most commonly seen yantras is the Sri Chakra. It symbolises Sri, the mother goddess in Hinduism who has many manifestations, especially that of Shiva’s consort.

The Sri Chakra’s many interlocking opposing triangles reminded me of nani’s Mahalakshmi chauki. The Sri Chakra’s triangles represented the union of Shiva and Sri and the creation of the cosmos. I came back from the panel and excite dly told my mother about my discovery.

She handed me a Hindi book on Kumaon. The chapter on the “folk art aipan” explained that the Mahalakshmi chauki starts with a dot signifying the cosmos, followed by the two triangles representing Lakshmi and her consort Vishnu. The three corners of the opposing triangles signify the divine trinity of Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva and that of Mahakali-Mahasaraswati-Mahalakshmi respectively.

The union suggests all procreation, and the resulting star-shape is the lotus on which Lakshmi stands. The lecture reminded me of my heritage, adding to it a complexity that I hadn’t known before. It also inspired my “occasional traditionalist fits.” Ever since the snow melted, I’ve been thinking about making some aipans. Like other elements of Hinduism today, aipans are a marketable commodity and are sold in many forms. — Beliefnet.com, concluded