Part 1 of the “Desi Remix” series, which explores the past by reimagining India’s

Part 1 of the “Desi Remix” series, which explores the past by reimagining India’s rich history of mythology, epics, and folktales by juxtaposing feminist icons onto Western classical paintings. 

Inspired by Sandro Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” and renowned Indian painter, Raja Ravi Varma, this scene depicts the story of king Shantanu and his queen, Satyavati from the Indian epic, “Mahabharata”. 

Satyavati was the daughter of a fisherman, a commoner who made a living helping her father fish. It was said that people always noted the stench of fish exuding from her body. She was known for this stench until she met a priest who exchanged her foul smell for one so fragrant it made her smell alluring from far away (which is what led king Shantanu to her). Similar to the original Birth of Venus, this story questions what we consider “beautiful”. Satyavati was a commoner who became beautiful enough for a king. Whether by her smell, looks, physical or internal beauty, beauty is more than just godly or divine, which classical European paintings have traditionally led us to believe. In relation to beauty standards in South Asian culture today, the image of Satyavati breaks free from the stereotypes of South Asian women being labeled as conservative or shy by not being ashamed of the physical and creating a visual that allows the viewer to recognize the power of her being: the ugliness of her now beautiful stench, her humble beginnings as a working woman, her body in both the physical and spiritual sense, internal and external self, and her allure as a woman.