Oil on canvas, 18X24in

THE VAHANA SERIES (2026)

The Vahana series presents five narratives paintings by Brooklyn-based artists Kesha Dalal, centering the feminine experience within the South Asian diaspora. Set inside a fictional yet familiar world, the works use recognizable motifs such as the red sari, gold jewelry, and stone architecture to explore the layered relationship between identity, culture, and belonging.

The series is informed by Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction, transformation, and divine feminine power. While traditionally depicted with a lion or tiger, Kali is also associated with the black panther, a symbol for her darker, more untamed energy. The pairing serves as a metaphor for the shadow self (the aspects of identity that are suppressed, feared, or rendered unacceptable).

Dalal uses this mythology to challenge a central tension within the diaspora: coexistence of a cultural framework that celebrates strong, rule-breaking femininity, and a lived reality in which those exact qualities are often discouraged. By invoking Kali and her vahana, the series collapses the boundary between divine and human, suggesting that the impulse to explore the self is not external to tradition, but embedded within it.

The Vahana Series reveals a quiet contradiction: within Hindu mythology exists a permission to embrace the untamed, even as cultural expectations continue to ask for its restraint.

Vahana वाहन 

(an animal that serves as a vehicle and representation of a Hindu deity’s power and personality)

The woman and her Vahana begin their story on the staircase, where the gate acts as a temple. She is adorned with jewelry and wears a red sari, typically symbolizing marriage, repurposed here as a devotion to her culture. The panther embodies her shadow self; the parts of her that are not accepted.