Kamala, “she of the lotus,” is a name of Laksmi, one of the most popular deities of India. The last of the ten Mahavidyas, and in striking contrast to her powerful presence in popular religious belief, Kamala is considered of least importance yet crucial within this group. She is a source of worldly blessings, abundance, fertility, and growth. In Hindu myth she appears, as does the Greek Aphrodite, from the ocean. As a member of this tantric group, Kamala is described as free from all other male consorts and as having fierce as well as benign attributes and, in her way as both light and shadow, brings abundance to spiritual aspirations.

This watercolor combines the sacred geometry of the yantra of Kamala with a scene derived from a Punjab Hills painting c. 1775.