Indian Mythology in Modern Fashion: The Stories Behind Anahat

Anahat is a fashion brand from India whose graphic t-shirts draw from Indian mythology and folk art. Each design is a story before it is a print. This guide is an index to those stories — the texts they come from, the traditions they belong to, and the people they depict — organised by theme.

The Mahabharata family

The Mahabharata is the longer of India's two Sanskrit epics, traditionally attributed to the sage Vyasa. It is composed of approximately one hundred thousand verses across eighteen books. Several Anahat designs draw from it directly:

• Warrior & Guide — Krishna and Arjuna at the opening of the Bhagavad Gita, set in the Bhishma Parva. Read the story.
• The Garland Weaver — Draupadi at her swayamvara, described in the Adi Parva. Read the story.
• Arjuna — the third Pandava, owner of the bow Gandiva. Read the story.
• Force of the Pandava (kids) — Bheem, the second Pandava, son of Vayu. Read the story.
• The Pen of Wisdom — Vyasa and Ganesha at the writing of the epic. Read the story.
• Navagunjara — a composite creature from the Odia Mahabharata of Sarala Das. Read the story.

Krishna in his many ages

Krishna appears across multiple Anahat designs, drawing from the Bhagavata Purana, the Mahabharata and devotional poetry. The childhood stories of butter and mischief, the youth in Vrindavan, the strategist of Kurukshetra, the philosopher of the Bhagavad Gita — the same figure at different points of his life.

• The Butter Bandit (adult and kids) — the childhood butter thefts from the Bhagavata Purana. Read the story.
• Warrior & Guide — Krishna as charioteer at Kurukshetra.

The Ramayana

The Ramayana is the shorter of the two Sanskrit epics, attributed to the sage Valmiki and dated by most scholars to between the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. The story of Rama and the war in Lanka has been retold in regional languages across India for over a millennium.

• Ram Leela — the theatrical retelling of the Ramayana, performed across North India during Navaratri. Read the story.
• Divine Protector — Hanuman, central to the Sundara Kanda.

The goddess

Goddess-worship in India draws on multiple texts and traditions — the Devi Mahatmya, the Devi Bhagavata Purana, the various Tantras, and a vast body of regional folk tradition.

• Durga — the warrior, the slayer of Mahishasura. Read the story.
• Devi — the goddess in general, the category that holds many forms. Read the introduction.
• Shri — Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity.
• Maharani — the queens of India, in textile and royal tradition. Read the story.

The deities

• Lambodar (Madhubani Ganesha) — Ganesha in the folk-art tradition of Mithila. Read the story.
• Surya — the sun deity, from the Rigveda to Konark. Read the story.
• Divine Protector (Hanuman) — the Vanara of the Ramayana.

The folk-art traditions

Some Anahat designs are not portraits of figures but renderings of folk-art traditions — the visual languages in which India has told its stories for centuries.

• Jeevan Vriksha — Tree of Life in Gond tribal painting. Read the story.
• Lambodar — Madhubani painting from Mithila.
• Netra — the eye art of Kerala's Kathakali. Read the story.

The symbols

• Bindi — the forehead mark, across centuries of Indian tradition. Read the story.
• Eternal Bloom — the lotus, the most recurring motif in Indian art. Read the story.
• Mandala — sacred geometry, from Rigvedic chapter divisions to the Sri Yantra. Read the story.
• Darshan — the sacred act of seeing. Read the story.
• Rakshak — the Hamsa hand, a shared symbol of protection across cultures. Read the story.
• Men at Night — night in Indian folklore and the Vedas. Read the story.

How the brand approaches the work

Each Anahat design begins with a story already told. The illustrator works from the source: the text, the iconography, the folk tradition. The print on cloth is the latest version of an image that has been rendered in other materials — stone, palm leaf, plaster wall, miniature paper, embroidered thread — for a very long time before now.

The brand collaborates with the writer and mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik on a substantial part of its catalogue, particularly designs drawn from textual sources. Other designs are part of Anahat's Originals collection, drawing from folk and regional traditions.