Indian Painting of Tantric Palmistry Chart

Big painted hand, color-coded and labeled, glows against lime green.

This painting of a tantric palmistry chart is from India, and dates to the early 20th century. It is pigment. Tantric diagrams and charts in India were often painted on paper in mineral pigments, and many were made for teaching, meditation or reference. Small page with a green ground framed in gold and a red border with worn corners. A hand with spread fingers is divided into small colored patches and marked with script. Two six-pointed stars sit at the bottom corners. It is 8.25 inches wide and 10.5 high.

Every fingertip has a job, and a label for it.