Maya's Dream

Anybody familiar with Sakti Burman’s family would imagine this canvas to be a reference to his daughter Maya (who is also an artist as his wife Maite Delteil). That’s also because Maya has figured regularly in Burman’s canvases. However, this oil and ink work pre-dates Maya Burman’s birth in 1971. But it’s a clear reference to the Shakya queen Maya’s dream of a white tusker entering her womb, which the seers of the court interpreted that her child would become world-renowned. We know that child today at Gautam Buddha.