Paris intensified this imagination. Arriving there in 1946, he delved into the rich currents of European art Cubist logic, Brâncuși’s luminous severities, the philosophical rigor of the École du Louvre. Yet, the deeper he sank into Western modernism, the more he surfaced with a renewed sense of his own spiritual inheritance. What emerged was what he termed “constructive symbolism” a language in which Tantric geometry, sacred rhythms, and abstraction cohabit in poised, meditative tension.

His engagement with the feminine divine, especially in his later decades, reflects this inward turn. Mazumdar’s Devi does not resemble the goddess familiar from temple sculpture; she is instead an atmosphere, an intuition, a vibration, the shimmer of knowledge before it becomes form. He paints not the goddess’s figure but her essence: the quiet radiance of wisdom, the subtle music of inner knowing.

Against this backdrop, the long and vibrant lineage of Saraswati, goddess of learning and the arts, forms a fascinating contrast. Across Indian art history, her image is anchored in recognisable attributes: the veena, the book, the lotus, and, most enchantingly, the hamsa, the swan that bears her. The swan, symbol of purity and discernment, capable myth tells us of separating milk from water, becomes a visual shorthand for refined intelligence.

Among the earliest and most influential artistic interpretations is that of Raja Ravi Varma, whose iconic Saraswati, poised serenely upon her swan, established the goddess’s modern visual identity for millions. Ravi Varma’s portrayal, with its luminous skin tones, flowing drapery, and tender naturalism, set the standard for divine portraiture in the late 19th and early 20th century, closing the distance between the celestial and the human. His Saraswati is regal yet intimate a goddess who enters the household shrine as gracefully as she appears in the cultural imagination.

Following him, a constellation of artists across regions and traditions expanded on this imagery. Ranging from Kalamkari, Bengal Pattachitra, Newari thangka painters to Modern and Contemporary artists.

Mazumdar, however, chooses another path. He does not depict Saraswati upon her swan; he paints what the swan means. In his universe, the hamsa dissolves into gesture, rhythm, abstraction. Its purity becomes a soft line; its discerning grace becomes a plane of light; its flight becomes a quiet, eternal curve. In the bird imagery of his celebrated Wing of No Endseries, one can almost hear an echo of Saraswati’s hamsa transmuted, philosophical, freed from narrative.

In the upcoming Olympia, ‘Indian, Islamic, Himalayan and South-East Asian Art’ auction, Lot 64 by Nirode Mazumdar offers a lyrical, modernist re-imagining of Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom, music, and learning. Rather than relying on traditional iconography, Mazumdar abstracts her form into soft, curving planes of grey and ochre, allowing her presence to emerge through gesture and mood rather than ornament. The swan, her long-standing vahana, appears here as a fluid, almost calligraphic counterpart, its contours echoing the goddess’s body in a quiet visual harmony.

Mazumdar’s use of broad, expressive brushwork and a palette of muted blues and golds places Saraswati in an atmospheric, contemplative realm, aligning her with the language of early modern Indian art. In this distilled composition, he captures not the literal attributes of the deity but the essence of creative awakening itself, an interplay of thought, intuition, and serene grace that feels at once ancient and boldly contemporary.

The swan does not merely carry the goddess; it carries the viewer toward a more contemplative realm, where art itself becomes a mode of inner illumination.