Deity

Bikash Bhattacharjee painted women in a variety of settings and ways in which his overarching concern was the exploration of the man-woman relationship, contextualising the way society viewed women in different roles. Here, the protagonist is a Bengali homemaker—dressed as she is in a white saree with red border—referred to as a deity. Bhattacharjee mocks the tradition of addressing women as manifestations of goddesses, even though they are more often treated as lesser beings. The smoke emanating from a sacred ritual here obscures her face, just as society obscures their ambitions and desires.