The nine Navagraha dieties are to be be found in a small, special, square enclosure in every temple. No visit to a temple is complete without the devotee offering worship at this enclosure. And a copper plate with the Navagrahas inscribed on them, as illustrated below, is often to be found in the Puja room in Hindu households among the objects kept for worship.  For, the Navagrahas are believed to determine the course of our lives.

    The  Navagrahas have lived in the minds of  millions in India over the millenia. They have been celebrated and worshipped in sloka and stotra, in sculpture and music. Muthuswamy Dikshitar, one of the great Trinity of Carnatic music, dedicated nine of his delectable compositions to the Navagrahas. These compositions are reproduced and rendered below the nine drawings to emphasise the Indian view that  name and form, colour and sound, are but manifestations of the Divine.

    An attempt has been made in this Project to depict each of the Navagrahas through a painting or a metal plate image as the centre piece of a collage of image, artifact and information representing the many things associated with the planet or deity, like the colour, dress, gems, food, song, qualities, animals, and relationships with nature. All this imagery and symbolism are but indicators of how, in the Indian mind, these Navagrahas are not just distant planets, but living presences and influences in their everyday lives, how closely integrated human life is in the Cosmic Laws of Cause and Effect. The viewer will be able to get a better view of the Navagrahas and a closer feel for what they stand for, by clicking on each of the links given at the top of this page and repeated below :