Role of Animals in Indian Symbolism

Animals have played a vital role in Indian mythology through the ages reflecting the collective unconscious or the “psychic inheritance” of the people. The ink and acrylic works are a representation of the animal symbol that is used to carry powerful messages to our conscious awareness from our core essence, the higher self, as a tool to guide us through this life. These symbols are what Jung has labeled "motifs". This animal "motif", as Carl Jung states, represents our "primitive and instinctual nature ". In Indian mythology the animal motifs are termed “bahon” meaning daemon or the bearer of the essence of each symbol. The words daemon is a Latinized spelling of a word from Greek mythology used to describe “supernatural beings between mortals and gods, such as inferior divinities…” (Plato’s “Symposium”).


The ink and acrylic works include “Mansa”, the fertility goddess who has a cat for a “bahon”. Shiva, a symbol of life and virility, has a bull, Saraswati, symbolizing beauty and learning has a swan, Yama the god of death has the raven, while Narayan symbolizing regeneration, reposes on a snake.  It may be also be worth noting that :
 

Narayan is represented as a hermaphrodite, both male and female, an embodiment of the union of opposites, which happens to be an important idea in Jung's theory as well. Dharma, the symbol of righteousness and good judgment has the slow moving turtle. These "motifs" as well as others stimulate unconscious knowledge to arise and become conscious common knowledge and form a bridge between what is known and what is unknown.

 The concept of “bahon” in keeping with Jung’s theory of a symbol is an image that implies something more than its obvious and immediate meaning.