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Le Sutra, which audaciously describes itself as the world’s first Indian art hotel, is a lesson in Indian philosophy, discovers Maria Louis after visiting the new Rajsik floor of the old Pali Hotel in Mumbai.

Earlier this year, a miniature replica of a meditating yogi was found squatting in our office, silently announcing the launch of the Sattvik floor of Le Sutra – the refurbished Pali Hotel in Bandra.

A quote from the Bhagvad Gita inscribed below read: “urdhva-mulam adhah-sakham” (meaning “the roots are above, the branches below”), This sculptural depiction of the concept of being desirous of rising in your level of consciousness was a fitting invitation to partake of the feast of art and craft laid out in a space designed to help visitors look upwards and inwards.

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Art is what binds the three levels of Le Sutra (which translated from Sanskrit means “a rope or thread that holds things together”).

Launched with great fanfare through a series of events that introduced the concept via the support of celebrities such as artist Anjolie Ela Menon and dancer Mallika Sarabhai, not to mention international film director Baz Luhrman of Moulin Rouge fame who left his mark through a mural painted on the facade, this unique hotel piques the interest of visitors right at the entrance – where the lotus logo on the façade is created out of three metals: copper, gold and silver to symbolise the three gunas of tamas, rajas and sattva.

Drawing from a palette of philosophy, myth and history, the artists, designers, curators, philosophers and visualisers journeyed across time in search of the elusive “Indianness” that would set this hotel apart.

When we first heard that the new avatar of the three-level hotel from the Bajaj Hotels Group is based on the three gunas or human attributes, we were sceptical about how it would be translated into the design – until we stepped into the minimalistic rooms on the Sattvik floor, which represents the celestial, ethereal and spiritual nature of man.

According to Indian philosophy, the gunas are tendencies within people, nature and things that are essential to the evolution of consciousness: tamas, associated with excessiveness, self-indulgence and gratification – as seen in the colourful, opulent, intricate and erotic; rajas, the force that creates the desire to acquire things – represented in action that is vibrant, passionate, vivacious and stylish; and sattva, the aspiration for higher realms of balance, order and purity – as reflected in the ethereal and aesthetic look the Sattvik floor aspires to.

The rooms of each level of Le Sutra are based on characters (Ravan, Ashok, Buddha) or characteristics (sensuality, love, purification) inspired by Indian myth and philosophy. Every room is treated as a canvas where the story that forms the guest experience is told through art.