Hinduism is the predominant religion in India, it has approximately 867 million followers making up about 13% of the world’s population and as such the culture that ensues it is full of different aspects of life that are effected by art. There are 64 traditional arts that are followed that start with the classics of music and range all the way to the application and adornment of jewellery. Since religion and culture are inseparable with Hinduism recurring symbols such as the gods and their reincarnations, the lotus flower, extra limbs, and even the traditional arts make their appearances in many sculptures, paintings, music, and dance.
- Extra Limbs – Extra limbs are seen on many of the Hindu deities in paintings and sculptures. The extra limbs show how much power the god is capable of because of their ability to perform many tasks at once. Such as the goddess Sarasvati always has a minimum of four arms. Two of the arms will be playing a vina, representing the tuning of her knowledge, prayer beads in another hand and a scripture in another, both of these items are used to represent her devotion to her spirituality. Since she is the goddess of learning and art we see that she is very capable and very powerful in her area of expertise.
- Lotus Flower – The lotus flower is another common item seen constantly throughout the arts. The lotus flower represents purity, beauty, prosperity, fertility, and transcendence.The reason the flower shows these attributes is due to the process in which the lotus flower goes through in order to blossom. The flower grows out of mud and rests atop the water in which it grows showing the hardship it must endure in order to achieve maximum beauty. Many deities have their name based on the Sanskrit word for lotus such as Lakshimi.