The brief gave the mount a full horizontal sweep: the crocodile stretches the whole width over a band of well-water, its scale-rows drawn one by one in iron-black so the body reads as careful pattern rather than menace. Khodiyar sits cross-legged and calm on its back, trident and lotus in hand, while fish and lotuses fill the water below — the well that is her domain. A dusty rust-tinted ground was chosen so the cream carries a faint earth-warmth under the maroon. The Vaghri (Devipujak) community of Ahmedabad and Saurashtra, long kept from temple sanctums, painted the Mother onto cloth to carry their shrine with them, and the calm bands of musicians and processing devotees keep the centre clear. Deep-maroon red, iron-rust black, undyed cream: nothing else, because the limited natural-dye triad is the entire discipline.