This Batik on silk depicts Goddess Durga as Shakti — the divine feminine energy — enshrined within a temple built intentionally for her.
Created fifty years after the artist’s migration from India to the United States, the work marks a profound shift from improvisation to belonging. Where early immigrant communities once transformed churches into makeshift mandirs, Shakti now resides in her own sacred architectural space. Rendered through the labor-intensive wax-resist Batik technique, the temple form glows with layered color and rhythmic pattern, evoking permanence, devotion, and collective effort. Durga’s presence represents strength, protection, and generative power, the force that sustains life and community.
