Handful Of Emotions

It blesses and reassures, receives and gives, invites and bids goodbye, creates abhinaya and mudras, writes HARSHA V DEHEJIA of the human hand

The human hand with the prehensile thumb is the most beautiful and evocative part of the human body. Not only is it of utility in carrying out the many functions of human life but even more, raises it towards the sky to reach for the heavens; it expresses feelings, holds a kalam to write a love song and a chisel to transform a stone into a celestial image, and handles a needle to create beautiful embroidery.

Our gods and goddesses speak to us through their hands. The Varada Hasta of Vishnu assures us of blessings; the Abhyaya Mudra of Shiva gives us protection. The left hand of Shrinathji calls us to join him in his krida, games, and when Venugopal holds the flute with his two hands, it is a call to his madhurya, sweetness. When Durga wields the trishul, trident, with her hand, it is an assurance of the victory of good over evil; when Lakshmi holds the lotus, it guarantees mangalya, auspiciousness; when Saraswati holds the Vedas or plays on the veena, it is an expression of the sanctity of vak, sacred speech.

Ganesha’s hand full of laddus is a reminder of the sweetness of life.

When the yakshi holds the branch of a tree, it signals the fertility and fecundity of the world around us.

When Kama holds the flower arrow, it is a promise that shringara is the paramount emotion of the human condition and when the Buddha places his hands in the Dharma Chakra Pranidhana, it is an assurance of the primacy of dharma of the human condition.

It is the potter who moulds a lump of earth with his hands into a kalasha, pot; the weaver who holds the spindles with his hand and who translates trackless generations of memory into a fabric; the rangrez, dyer, who mixes natural colours with hands to create the many radiant colours that will adorn our life; the artist who holds a kalam and creates enduring paintings; the housewife who with her bare hands freshens her walls with earth or cow dung and then paints over it with rice paste so that it does not remain a wall but becomes a visual prayer; the mother who sits on the grinding wheel, and even as she sings, rhythmically moves her hands to ensure that the granary of the home is always full; the new bride who adorns with delicate movement of her hands the threshold of her home with rangoli, and later goes to the river to fetch water with her kalasha and bakes her rotis with the clap of her hands; in the afternoon two women pound spices and in that sound, there is the sweet beat of the movement of life. In all of these activities of the hand, there is music and a song, rhythm and dance of the hand and not just tedium and a chore.

The hand blesses and reassures, receives and gives, invites and bids goodbye, creates abhinaya and mudras. Truly has it been said, “Anubhava, where the hands go the eyes follow; saatvik abhinaya, where the eyes go the mind follows; where the mind goes the bhava, mood follows, where the mood goes there is rasa born.”