Sunday, December 30, 2012

Mahabharata - Krishna and vimana speedy

Krishna driving Arjuna's vimana in the Mahabharata. The whole image & Krishna close up in one:

Yes, this Krishna was Arjuna's charioteer during the 18 days of war. In the book Krishna is driving a chariot with 4 horses, but weren't they celestial horses who could fly? I love the "Vedic sci-fi" approach to Mahabharata by Grant Morrison and Mukesh Singh, so vimanas are a must. I've had similar ideas before I stepped on their project, though less SF than theirs. If you haven't seen their 18 Days give it a try, the art and the art-book itself rock!

 Also one more reason for vimanas is Ancient Aliens overdose in the last days - I love this series. Just an idea for vimana, I prefer vimanas looking like flying chariots. There is a text on vimanas called Vaimānika Shāstra describing their look and construction, but given the nature of the text I believe we are justified to paint what our imagination says.

 Regarding Krishna himself - in my copy of Mahabharata he is described as having very dark complexion and his name means literally "black, dark blue", thus I gave him dark carnation. Perhaps he should be even darker, but there are also hypothesis he was just darker than his pale brother Balarama, thus the name. The same goes for Arjuna - he was very dark like Krishna or just darker than his pale brothers and father.