From the beauty of a blade of grass to the magnanimity of the vast sky, it is indeed a wonder how everything around us has been carefully crafted and presented to us in a spectacular manner. It, indeed would be very surprising if one is not enchanted by what has been gifted to us. If we have a look at our own human body, the way the various cells, blood vessels, neurons and organs work together is itself a big mystery! While reflecting upon these gifts, one can only be humble and embrace the presence of the supreme that is taking care of each of us every second. A careful look and one would know that we are essentially a part of that divine which is all embracing, all loving and omnipresent. The Upanishads and other scriptures have directed us towards realizing this truth. However, since most of us find it difficult to contemplate upon this supreme which is omnipresent and formless, idols and symbols were introduced through which one can reflect upon and realize this truth. Looking at something beautiful, being moved by it and thereby expressing one’s adoration for it is a trait that is innate in a human being. Temples in India were constructed as a space where one could look at these idols and express their feelings towards the divine and contemplate upon the truth. Over a period of time, people took great delight in decorating these idols in rich and colourful clothing, jewelleries and adorning them to enthrall the audience and thereby help invoke devotion in the spectators for the divine. This resulted in the springing up of the art of ‘Alankara’ of deities where people took simple delight in adorning the deities in both temples and at homes bringing them a step closer to the divine. ‘Alankara’ simply means ornamentation and this art of decorating the deities gained its prominence during the rule of King Raja Raja Cholan where the artform made its place in one of the 64 artforms introduced by him. Although, this artform sprang in the temples, it was taken to homes and other functions with people making their own idols and decorating them to resemble their idea of the supreme. While decorating these idols may seem to be simple, the alankara artists studied and employed the various postures, body structure and other features as specified in the ‘Shilpashastra’ and ‘Natyashastra’ so as to come up with the best Alankara. This book serves as an introduction to the art of ‘Alankara’ wherein the readers will be introduced to the art and science involved in the decoration of Hindu deities. Thorough understanding of the body structure, postures, mudras used in an alankara as specified in the book will help the readers to understand and appreciate the artform in a much better manner. While the subject of alankara is an ocean, we will be restricting our discussion to the ‘alankara’ of Hindu deities alone. We hope that the audience is able to take this artform to their homes and install the divine in their hearts by adorning it in a form that they can relate to, the most. This book serves as a glimpse of one of the means to re awaken to your true identity and also to take those in the path of devotion a step closer to the divine. May you all develop the necessary devotion and devoutness through this artform in fulfilling the great benedictory note!Through this book, Gowtham would like to honour the efforts by his father and his great grandfather in the field of Alankara of deities by creating more awareness on this divine artform and giving the readers a glimpse of the arts and science involved in coming up with such artistic decorations. This book has been written with the help of inputs and experiences shared by him in this field with an objective of taking this artform to a wider range of readers and thereby help induce love for the divine in the hearts of the readers