Born in 1941 at Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu, A Manivelu learned art as a child from his father SN Arumuga Achari, who was a temple builder, a muralist and maker of temple chariots and iconic statues. Manivelu is widely known for his detailed paintings of gods, goddesses and various deities. He has painted the murthis…
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Desenna
A conceptual artist who created many pieces of artwork for the construction of Iraivan Temple’s surrounding buildings and landscape.
I Wayan Marya
An acclaimed Balinese artist, I Wayan Marya spent two years painting the masterpieces that adorn the chapters of our book, The Lemurian Scrolls. He also painted Iraivan temple and an overview of the monastery property, capturing the lush magic of this land.
Indra Sharma
Indra Sharma (1923 – 2006) of Kurawad in Rajasthan was a cousin of B.G. Sharma, both of whom worked in the Nathdwara art tradition. His early training in painting took place under the direction of two masters, Gopilal and Khubilal from whom he learned the basic skills of making paints and brushes. In 1943, he…
N T Rajeev
NT Rajeev is an Indian artist specializing in paintings for children. He has illustrated several of our books for youth and did a series for Hinduism Today for an Insight on ashtanga yoga for kids.
Pieter Weltevrede
Pieter Weltevrede began his artistic studies with the Indian master Harish Johari in 1977 and also studied with Shri Chandra Bal. He lives in Holland with his wife and three children and travels to India annually to teach art in the style of his guru. Pieter is a prolific artist and has collaborated with Himalayan…
Sundaram Rajam
Sundaram Rajam: (10 February 1919 – 29 January 2010) was an Indian actor, painter and Carnatic musician from the state of Tamil Nadu. He is known for his series of portraits of the Trinity of Carnatic music. In the 1990s Himalayan Academy purchased his lifetime of work, some 500 paintings, brought them to Kauai and digitized…
Suresh Muthukulam
When next you land at the new Mumbai airport, a massive 10′ by 80′ mural depicting flight will greet you, the work of S. Suresh Kumar, popularly known as Suresh Muthukulam. Traditionally trained and extraordinarily gifted, Suresh is arguably Kerala’s leading muralist. Suresh was born in 1971 and mastered the Kerala mural tradition under an…
Kailash Raj
Kailash Raj is a descendant of a family of traditional Jaipur painters, and was strongly influenced by his grandfather (Nanu Lal) and by work of his great-grandfather (Amba Shankhar). His family is one of the few who managed to keep their traditional art alive throughout the 20th century, by continuing to serve as painters for…
Maniam Selven
Maniam Selvan, (1950- ) is a leading illustrator in Tamil magazines living in Chennai. He was trained by his famous father, T.V. Subramaniam, known for his stylized watercolor work. Himalayan Academy has commissioned MaSe, as he signs his name, to do paintings of the life of Nimbarkacharya and a series on the nine rasas or…
Baani Sekhon
With a graduate/ post graduate in fine arts, Baani has more than eighteen years of experience in the creative industry in various capacities, as an Art Director, Curator, Designer and Illustrator. She lives in India and now works independently as a freelancer taking commissions for Illustrations, Design, Art Direction, Original Paintings and Writing. Her mediums…
Natalie Levin
Natalie Levin is a sculptor, artist, poet and something of a hermit, living with husband Jim in the remote Arizona desert. In 2019 she created (after years of work in the studio) America’s first and only authentic Sadasiva, a 4-foot-tall bronze of Siva with five faces and ten arms. It is now in the Sacred…
Lynda McClanahan
An artist, Musician, New Thought minister and yoga philosophy instructor in Ohio, USA
Sagar
Saroja Nagaratnam
Saroja Nagarajan painted prolifically in the 1980s and 90s, and did several major works for Himalayan Academy. Her art is not drawn, but written with hundreds of thousands of bija mantrams and a pen with colored inks. This form of art is considered worshipful, much like a Deity murti.
Explore by Collection
Dancing With Siva
Artwork from Sivaya Subramuniyaswami’s book, Dancing with Siva. This series was created by S. Rajam.
Alphabet Artwork
Artwork by A. Manivelu
Saivite Hindu Religion Course
Line art from Books 1, 2 and 3 of the Saivite Hindu Religion Course.
Thirty-Two Forms of Ganesha
The Dhyana Slokas from the ancient scripture mudgala purana give an illustrious description of the 32 forms of Ganapati. These images and slokas are an extract from Sritattvanidhi, an iconographic treatise compiled in 19th century in Karnataka.
Rajam’s Tirukural
There are 108 paintings in this amazing collection. They have an interesting history. In the 1990s Himalayan Academy had commissioned another series of the chapters of the Tirukural, the 2,200-year-old holy text written by the Tamil weaver Tiruvalluvar. Seeing these paintings in his studio for the first time in the early 2000s in South India,…
Borders
A series of borders, many from past issues of Hinduism Today Magazine.
Background Patterns
Paintings of Thanjuvar
Kolams
Living with Siva
From 2000 to 2003 A. Manivelu of Chennai, South India, worked in his studio to create this collection of meaningful works. They each depict a chapter in the book Living with Siva, which is a compendium of Hindu lifestyle and culture. They offer insight into the ways of Southeast Asia, how life is conceived, understood…
Merging with Siva
Artwork from Sivaya Subramuniyaswami’s book, Merging with Siva. This series by A. Manivelu of Chennai, South India, was commissioned around 1999. He spent two years on the series. Each painting depicts one of the 52 chapters of the book Merging with Siva, plus more that portray the various resources. Since the book is highly metaphysical…
Sadasiva Paintings
In 2011 Himalayan Academy commissioned the Dutch artist Pieter Weltevrede to do a series of canvases on Sadasiva, the five-faced form of Siva as the Eternally Auspicious God. Pieter worked for months in Amsterdam to execute the series and in 2012 his art was showcased in a 16-page Insight educational feature in Hinduism Today magazine….
The Guru Chronicles
Art for the Guru Chronicles was commissioned in 2001. S. Rajam, arguably South India’s most traditional and deeply informed artist, worked on the 55 canvases from 2002 to 2004. Each canvas was designed as a medley of stories for a particular time in history. For the final book, stories were taken from the canvas and…
Aums
For decades the monks of Kauai’s Hindu Monastery have collected and created aums for our publications and sheer joy of the wide range of imagery. These are now available through HAMSA. Aum, also spelled Om, is the soundless sound and source of all existence. The mystic syllable of Hinduism, placed at the beginning of most…
Line Art
Our line art collection comes from many sources. It is, without a doubt, the richest gathering of black and white art specifically depicting Saivism and the culture of South India.
Siva Vision Art
Nine paintings by artist Suresh Muthukulam which represent mystical visions seen by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. These vision led to the founding of Iraivan Temple in Kauai and its surround San Marga Sanctuary.