Vintage Chromolithograph Depicting Shesh Sai

This rare vintage Raja Ravi Varma chromolithograph depicting Shesh Sai presents Vishnu reclining on Ananta (Shesha), the seven-hooded cosmic serpent, with Lakshmi seated near his feet. The composition includes attendant figures identified as Hanuman, tentatively recognised by his curled tail, and Garuda, identifiable by his wings.

Vishnu is distinguished by his traditional attributes, including the lotus (padma) and conch shell (shankha). The scene represents a cosmological moment preceding creation, in which Vishnu rests before generating Brahma and entrusting him with the act of creating the universe.

Produced through chromolithography (oleography), prints such as this enabled Raja Ravi Varma’s mythological imagery to circulate widely in domestic and devotional settings during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By combining European academic realism with Hindu cosmological narratives, these works helped shape modern visual representations of Indian deities.

This chromolithograph stands as a historical record of early Indian print culture and the transmission of sacred imagery beyond temple and courtly contexts.