PORTRAYALS OF 'ABDUCTION' BY PAUL CEZANE AND RAJA RAVI VARMA

I came across ‘Abduction’ of Paul Cézanne and ‘Killing of Jatayu’ by Ravi Varma almost at the same time. Then I thought of writing a few lines on these paintings and the situations of abduction as portrayed by these artistes, centuries and miles apart.

The word ‘Abduction’ means ‘carry off a person illegally by force or deception’ (Source : Concise Oxford Dictionary) or kidnapping in short. The parent is the Latin word : Abducere. Stories of abduction, of beauties and vulnerable , are aplenty in our mythology and history. Epics have been written around tales of abduction and stirred artistes to create canvasses depicting the acts and dark emotion of abduction.



Cézanne’s painted ‘The Abduction’ in oil on a 35”X45” canvas ( Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK ) . It shows the raw passion and the force of the man who is carrying away a woman in the nude. The dark background of the canvas emphasises the dark mood of the act. The contrast of skins’ colours of the two key figures in this canvas is the contrast between the sexual desire of one and the fear of the same in the other. In my computer screen , I could not decipher what the far-off characters are doing…… are they intoxicated and therefore made no attempt to rescue the abducted woman or they are thrown on the ground by the brute force of the abductor. He painted this canvas in 1867 AD when he was 38 years old.



Ravi Varma painted Seeta's abduction scene from Ramayana The mood of the painting of Ravana fighting with Jatayu with a sword in his right hand , while he holds on to Seeta with his left is different from that of Cezane. Ravana abducted Seeta primarily to avenge his sister Shurpanakha’s humiliation in the hands of Rama and Lakshmana. Ravana’s high libido played a part in the act too. Ravana’s posture exudes power …. he overpowers Jatayu and holds onto Seeta with his left hand. Ravana’s posture and face depict heightened flow of adrenaline . Ravi Varma has not left any hint of sexual energy here.

Before I sign off, I would have liked to add a photo of this abduction scene on terra cotta panel. But, I have none in my HDD .I shall look for the same in future trips to locations of terra cotta temples . Here , we have photos of Seeta being deceived by Ravana in guise of a sage , Ravana fighting with Jatayu ( his wings are not chopped yet ) and fillnally abducted Seeta under a tree from where Hanuman is watching her.




These panels tell the 'story' , but drawn in static style, expresses no emotion.

DASHAVATAR - TEN INCARNATIONS of LORD BISHNU

A THREAD THROUGH 'SRIMADBHAGABAT' , 'GEETAGOVINDA' of JAIDEV and TERRA COTTA TEMPLES of BENGAL

Krsna told Arjuna , before the start of Kurukshetra war, about the Incarnations of Supreme Power through ages , in the timeless ‘sloka’, which is copied here in Bengali script :

Loosely translated, this ‘sloka’ means :

‘I make appearances through ages to rescue the Pious , to annihilate the miscreants and to preserve religious faith .’

The first verse of Jaidev’s GeetaGovinda is dedicated to the ten Incarnations of Lord Bishnu: Meena (Fish), Kurma (Tortoise), Baraha (Boar), Nrisinha (Man Lion) ,Bali (Dwarf), Parasuram, Rama, Balarama, Buddha and Kalki.According to Hindu mythology, nine of these Incarnations have already taken place and the last one, Kalki is yet to make His appearance.Each Incarnation is associated with a period of history and follows the trail of evolution of life and human race. First three Incarnations have sub-human forms. Fourth is anthropomorphic, fifth is a dwarf. Rest have normal human forms.

Jaidev’s 'Dash-avatar' is devotional and lyrical. But, that of SrimadBhagabat offers another angle to the reader. It says: God ( Lord Bishnu) has not only ten Incarnations, He has ten manifestations too. It is being established here : as Atma , the ‘soul’ , will have many ‘forms’ through re-births, ‘Parama-atma’, the Divine Soul also has many Forms too. Each of these forms has one or more very special connotation and/or story associated with it.

A panel with eight Incarnations - JorBangla temple,Bishnupur

Those, who are interested to delve into more details about these Incarnations and Manifestations, may please take the trouble of referring to the third chapter of SrimadBhagabat.

A panel showing Bishnu resting on 'Aananta' the snake  in the cataclysmic ocean.

ART OF GROTESQUE IN TERRA COTTA TEMPLES OF BENGAL

'Art of Grotesque' .... the foliages on left and right sides are dissimilar!
Watch out the difference in layout .... quite interesting !
From small temple at Antpur,Dt. - Hooghly.


Till I did a bit of Internet search for writing on the ‘Art of Grotesque’ in terra cotta temples of Bengal, I did not know about genesis of the word ‘Grotesque’. In art, this is a style that applies mostly to decorative frescoes where human figures, often with distortions and imaginary monsters are displayed with animals, floral patterns in a fanciful and eccentric manner which was first used at the Domus Aurea (Golden House) of Emperor Nero and the Baths of Emperor Titus. This was discovered during excavation of Roman houses during the 15th century. This type of art came to be known as ‘grotteschi’ from the word ‘grottoes’ or underground chambers.

Courtesy : http://www.spamula.net/blog/2006/06/faces_of_the_grotesque_1.html

I visited a couple of Internet sites to view the examples on display. I found strange and uncommon ornamental delicate designs of foliage and flowers, stylised human heads and strange animals, all composed, merged and mixed to create one ‘decorative whole’. I learnt that the principal painter of the Domus Aurea,Fabullus went for a few hours of work to the ‘Golden House’ each day while the light used to be right ( Pliny in his book ‘Natural history’). Inspired by these designs, Italian Renaissance artists; Raphael and his followers adopted this style in their frescoes . We can see examples in Pinturicchio's cathedral library ceilings at Siena (1502), and Perugino's ceiling of the Cambio in Perugia (about 1500).

Later on, the artistes from the Western world used techniques like separation, mixture, reassembly, duplication, multiplication, elongation, compression, enlargement, miniaturization, reversal, simplification, overcrowding, and fantastic interpretation while creating artwork of this category.

Among the hundreds of terra cotta panels created by Bengal’s artists during 17th to 19th centuries, we find many examples which stand out as our ‘grotesque’ artwork . The battle scenes of ‘Ramayana’ are the best but not the only examples.


Overcrowded and figures formed as "Monkey's and 'Rakhsasa's.
War scene from Ramayana.
Pancha Ratna Temple : Bishnupur.

Blow-up I from the above panel


Blow-up II from the above panel

I post here several photographs to illustrate artwork of the grotesque in Bengal’s temples.I have started with Ramayana battle scenes which have a lot of ingredients of grotesque. They are so. Both the army of ‘monkey’s and the ‘rakshasa’s invited depiction of forms with fantastic interpretation, distortion and overcrowding. Since,Terra cotta artists have used the technique of overcrowding repeatedly, I made an endeavour to identify and present grotesque artwork of other types.In future, I would like to discover the route of the idea of 'Art of Grotesque' from Europe to India.

A man squeezes two lions with his hands
while he tramples and subdues two elephants !


An imagenry winged animal, with curved beaks, a lot of teeth,
tramples elephants , yet strangles another elephant with its tail!
Size of this animal will be at least five times that of an elephant ! !

The above two panels are from Jor-Bangla.


I have two submissions to make to persons who are quite familiar with the terra cotta panels of Bengal's temples. Firstly, I have not used any of the 'social' panels with exaggeration,i.e., I have not used imageries which can be termed as 'caricature'. These panels can be taken up separately in a different article. Secondly,.... and this is a very important and sensitive point too...I have not touched any of the images of Bishnu's 'Dashavatar' where He manifests Himself as half-human-half-animal Being . In the eye of an Westerner , these images may appear to match their criteria of 'Grotesque Art' , but, according to Hindu scripture , these images convey much deeper meaning.

I end with another artwork from the small temple of Antpur , an example of 'Art of grotesque'.

DURGA PUJA (Part II) - NABAMI TO EKADASHI

Gorgeous Image of Devi Durga @ Parnasree Club

This year, Ruby and I have done pandal-hopping with discretion.We have found that the best Images and decorations can be enjoyed without queuing up during early morning and post-Dashami visits .

'Natun Dal' created this thatched hut to house Devi Durga ,

amidst a courtyard which looks very very real !

Behala's 'Nutan Dal' ( translated, New Group)......in literal sense.......a village Zamindar' house-hold with thermocole and brick-and-mortar .The execution is great.The visitor enter a Thakur-dalan( a permanent structure which houses the Idols of various gods , with ample space for devotees.

Two sides of the court-yard. Top : The entrance for the visitors.

Bottom : A temple created for Jagganatha.Wall of the Zamindar's house in the back-ground.

A very common feature of the house-holds of 18th/19th century rich Hindus), a court-yard where Devi Durga is housed under a thatched roof ( pigeons flocking on its roof !) and 2-storied building with real-windows over-looking the courtyard.

The pigeons are real !

The visitor comes across the deserted section of the property which belongs to the younger son of the family, now settled for a city life.In the Thakur-dalan, we could see ten-armed Ganesha idol ( based a South Bengal find), a 'Shiva-linga' and the accompanying bull. In the court-yards, we found a Ratha'(Holy Chariot) and idols of 'Radha-Krishna'. Very very life-like.



Top: Corner created to house a small temple for Radh-Krisna. Bottom : Wonderful craftsmanship in this Radha-Krishna image.

The Organisers have planted weeds on the cornices of the thermocole walls of the younger son's portion of the building to give it a look of being abandoned.



Hats off Rono Banerjee and his team ! See for yourself the proto-type he created for this set-up which fits into a recess between a Corporation Road and an existing building.


The most stylish pandal of our area is by Sruchi sangha. Every year, the Organisers pick up a state of India and bring the ambiance of that state into a few square metres of land. Very popular Puja.... this year, we saw Assam in this pandal.

 

The whole representation has made endeavour to capture a lot of speed and movement 

in the composition.

Devi Durga @ 66 Pally ,near Badamtala. Click on the image to watch in the larger view 

the symmetry in the composition .

The pandals we had at our own locality created dazzling interior within a moderate budget.Everywhere , there was emphasis on community activities .

A community Puja near the large Parnasree Lake.

A giant-sized hand-'punkha' used in a Puja @ Parnasree

The Puja pandal we visited twice is organised by 'Badamtala Club'.It is rated one of the best in Calcutta .Every evening during Pujas, 15-20,000 persons throng the pandal during the peak hours.

The pandal is created like a haveli with 'Thakur-dalan'. This part of the 'Theme' ,is the same as that of the pandal of 'Nutan Dal'.But , the visuals are totally different .The 'Haveli' is decorated with statues ans plaques , created in soft yellow and green colours, with style borrowed from 'Bat tala' publications of 19th century.

Left Top : A day light photo of the entrance. Left bottom : Ruby in front of a replica of the book by 'SriPantha' on 'Bat-tala' publications. 

Right : The RH panel of the 'Haveli'. Photo taken without flash.

'Sripantha' wrote a book on the history of 'Bat tala' publications . This style was seen not only on prints , but in wood-carvings and lithographs too. 'Bat tala' style was jazzed up and lighting created a nice ambiance. Devi Durga's image was exquisitely created.





One of the Puja organisers noticed that we went back a second time at 10.30 pm . He was very happy and took some of his time from a crowded schedule to chat with me. Before going back to his post,he showed me angles for capturing the Idol's photo from a interesting angle. These photos speak for themselves.

DURGA PUJA (Part -I) - DAYS FROM PANCHAMI TO ASTAMI

'....Ya Devi sarbabhuteshu Shaktirupeno sanksthita

Namostasyi Namostasyi Namostasyi Namonamah.......'

-- Two lines from the sanskrit sloka,which is chanted during Durgapuja

Translated in English, this sloka means :

The Goddess who manifests Herself as the Entity of Power,
I salute Her again and again,
I bow in front of Her.

Priest worships the Goddess with a lamp in his hand.
PurvaPally,Rashbehari Ave .




A child's impression of a DurgaPuja pandal, A competion of 'Dhunuci-dance' going on and viewers are in rapt attention !


Ruby and I look forward to these few days of festivity , not because of the revelry and pandal-hopping with the crowd, but because we enjoy to capture the artistry which make some of the pandals and images memorable in our cameras.This is how I have now a large nos of photos in my HDD....not so much in the Internet though.

A great devotee that we are of the Goddess, we have several idols of Durga at our place....from Dokra art to clay model to brass work and ceramic work.

Off late, I am looking for anti-hero image of Mahisasur and do not miss out him during our photo-walks.

Anguish of Mahisasur.PurvaPally,Rashbehari Ave.


Puja of 2008 started with an invitation for Ruby to be a 'distinguished' guest of a local Puja('Amra Kajan'-Airport crossing on Banamali Naskar Road) and the judge of a painting competion of the local children.We covered the local area on foot during our morning walks on two successive mornings.Twice we went out for longer duration and braved the onslaught of throngs of crowd.


Durga with golden colour. Behala Club emphasised the design of baluchari saree. The designs are often from events and scenes from Hindu Mythology.
I should have counted the nos of designs on display !



A clear view of the saree Devi Durga wears... an example of excellent craftsmanship !

Evenings of Sasthi,Saptami and Astami we enjoyed staying at home,watching the TV presentations.We marvelled at the Pandals and creative spirit displayed at Coochbihar, Purulia and Siliguri. I wonder whether we should visit Purulia on one of the Puja days of 2009 .....the silver-clad Durga being the attraction.The Pyramid/Sphinx' pandal at Siliguri is awesome....so was a pandal in Calcutta decorated with 80,000 pieces of terra cotta tiles and images !

Nearer home , the baluchari saree designs in Behala Club pandal,the 'poto-para' (a lane where the Idol-makers live) ambience of Behala High Scool puja , the neem-timber decoration of Adarsha Pally,the beautiful cave and Ajanta-inspired Durga in Ajeya Sanghati and gorgeous Devi idols at Purba Pally, Parnasree and a rather unknown Puja in Roy Bahadur Street at Behala were remarkable. Remarkable is the sand-made models in another Behala Puja.

Devi Durga , sharaisharyashalini ( gorgeous), Roy Bahadur Road, Behala

I share with the readers photos of some of the pandals, decoration and activities Ruby and I shot during the first few days of this great festivity.

Barisha Club, Behala created a mix of Egyptian ambience with typical 'big-eyes-short-arms' image of Durga, a very pre-valent of style of this area. A bit over-done !

There are disappointments too. 41st Pally of Haridebpur, which has used wooden branches of various sizes and shapes for decoration and a kind of bird's nest for housing the image of Durga was not upto the mark though it attracted a lot of crowd.

Collage of photos taken by Ruby @ 'Potopara' , created near Behala High School.
Young volunteers showed us around with a lot of enthusiasm. At 6.30 am, of Saptami,
we were the among the few visitors in this pandal. Felt no rush.
(VIEW FULL SIZE BY RIGHT-CLICK ON THE COLLAGE)

WHEN HANUMAN SAVES LORD RAMA & LAKSHMANA

As a child, I was kind of captivated by the stories of Mahabharata and Ramayana. The stories of valour, sacrifice and intrigue left a deep impression on my mind. As I grew older, many of these stories went into a kind of ‘hiding’. When I was standing in front of the panels of Shyam-Rai and Jor-Bangla temples of Bishnupur, depicting the stories of these epics , a few of the stories did come out of the hiding !

Panel on Jor-Bangla Temple, Bishnupur

One of the stories is that of kidnapping of Rama and Lakshmana by Mahiravana. A Tale of valour and grotesque! A Tale of two relatively unknown 'rakshasas', one of them died within hours of birth, but not before he fought hard with Hanuman!

The story goes like this : Ravana is crestfallen after death of Indrajit, his beloved son, one of the greatest warriors of Ramayana. His mother rebukes him for his folly of entering into enmity with Lord Rama. At the end of her tirade, Nikasha reminds Ravana that one of his sons, Mahiravana can be called and sent to fight Rama and his army.

Mahiravana is a great warrior and a king of 'Patala' ( it literally means : below ground level. Was that a region down south of Aryabarta ?) From Krittibasi Ramayana, it is not clear to me if Ravana sired him during a campaign to 'Patala' or he was one of the sons of Mandodari, principal queen of Ravana.

Mahiravana is a great devotee of 'Mahamaya' ( the Mother Goddess) and knew a lot of tricks or magic, apart from being a great warrior. He joins Ravana’s battle against Lord Rama when called and planned to kidnap him and Lakshmana, take them to his kingdom and sacrifice them in front of Mahamaya.

The army of Rama encircles him and Lakshmana in the night and Hanuman stays in the gate to guard the gate to ensure Mahiravana does not trick an entry into this circle. But, he does become successful. He comes repeatedly to the gate of this protective circle dressing up as various family members of Rama. He observes every time Hanuman asks him wait for Biveeshan ( Ravana’s brother who joined Rama , taking side of ‘Virtue’ in a battle between good and evil) to come and approve the visitor. He fools Hanuman by appearing as Biveeshan, goes inside the circle , put Rama and Lakshmana and all the monkeys guarding them asleep and takes them away into ‘Patala’ creating a deep tunnel.

Hanuman, in remorse, goes into the tunnel and learns from the tattle of an elderly woman of the beautiful city Mahiravana rules that Rama and Lakshmana will be sacrificed next day in the temple of Mahamaya. When Mahiravana stoops low in front of the Goddess to demonstrate to Rama how to prostrate in front of the deity, Hanuman beheads him with Her sword .

Hanuman cannot bring back Rama and Lakshmana immediately. Mahiravana’s widow, who is pregnant , regroups the army and puts up a tremendous fight .She gave birth to Ahiravana , a four-headed demon, when Hanuman kicks her in the stomach to subjugate her. Ahiravana gives Hanuman a tough fight too. Slippery with mucus and blood, catching Ahiravana becomes difficult for Hanuman. He throws dust on this infant demon to get a grip on his legs and crashes him to death.

Not a pleasant Tale at all!

Hanuman moves away from the thrashed body of Ahiravana

Here is the scanned copy of the illustration from Krittibasi Ramayana, edition of 1949 AD. The introduction to the 1^st edition of this book was written by late Dineshchandra Sen, the famous Bengali historian.

TRAGEDY OF MAHISHASUR - A KING WHO CROSSED HIS LIMIT !

Literally translated, ''Mahishasur' means 'Buffalo Demon'.
Was he really a 'Demon' or a dark-skinned and athletically built King of a non-Aryan kingdom?

Very likely the later. His story is probably 3000 years old, when there used to be a lot of fights between Aryans , who spread their kingdom in India,along the coast of rivers of the Sind area and later along the coast of the Ganges. and non-Aryans , who were in this country from the pre-Aryan days.

Kingdom of Mahishasur worshipped Buffalo.......an animal totem . Mahishasur was a natural leader and had military skills superior to the satraps of Aryan kingdoms neighbouring his territory. He was a shrewd person who stole a lot of military secrets of the Aryans in his early days by pretending to be a devout of Aryan beliefs.



After each of his victories , he took away wealth, weapons and women of the Aryan satraps , leaving them bitter and furious. But, he was invincible , commanded a deadly army and plundered Aryavarta at his will.Aryans dreaded Mahishasur who would terrify his opponents soldiers by leading his flock wearing a buffalo's mask and holding a dead Aryan's head at the tip of his sword.

Powerfully built , dark and handsome Mahishasur enjoyed the awe he inspired among his soldiers, subjects and women . He was virile , a person with high libido and an ego which grew in size with each of his triumphs . His libido and ego would cause his defeat and death as he aspired to capture the great Queen of the Aryans .In a way, this tragedy was the precursor of that of Ravana.

The great Queen lived and ruled the northern portion of Aryabarta. She was adored for her beauty,valour and insight .... she was literally worshipped by her subjects .She commanded great respect among the satraps of her kingdom because of the strength of her character.

At the early stage of this campaign,Mahishasur scorched through the neighbouring districts of Aryabarta towards north in persuit of his ambition .But the satraps who were directly subordinate of the great Queen's kingdom put great resistance.Her army was aided by those satraps of Aryabarta who were defeated time and again by Mahishasur earlier.Soon, the strength of his team started depleting in face of the stiff resistance he received.Deep inside Aryabarta, his supply line was getting thinner by the day.He himself got tired .A king who thrived on success time and again failed to recognise the negatives staring at his face. He believed he would be able to charm the Queen to come out with him as his consort.He continued in his efforts and sent a messenger to her court with this impossible suggestion that was outrageous to the Aryan community.The great Queen sent a warning to Mahishasur, but, he paid no heed to the Queen's words.

Was he infatuated and therefore unable to realise that he had crossed the limit?

The tragic end of the king who crossed his limit

The Aryan Queen regrouped and led the army herself to vanquish the Mahishasur's army.He tried all his tricks without success. He prayed to his god,wore his lucky mask and charged towards the great Queen to capture and run away with her. She was far too fast for the worn-out Asur .She pierced the breast of Mahishasur with her spear and the half-dead king was captured in no time . The Queen did not look back ....she ordered her General to throw the still alive body of king Mahishasur to her pet lion's cage.

A hero of Mahishasur's stature could have had a much better life and a more befitting death if he did not cross his limit.But, he did not know when to stop .



The pain of the Vanquished

This great Queen's victory gradually transformed into the eternal Tale of good versus evil in the hand of the conqueror's poets and bards. People started to worship the Queen as the deity of 'Power'..........'Shakti' in Sanskrit.... decades after she was gone . When Aryan's Puranas chronicled this Tale, she was given the name of 'Durga', the Goddess whose worship leads to overcome 'durgati' , i.e., ill-fortune.

There are two ways of concluding this Tale. We may conclude that Mahishasur deserved his end, because he was 'evil' and tried to over-reach . The second is just the diametrically opposite view: Mahishasur was an ambitious king, fighting with Aryans to expand his territory , no way different from the Aryans who pushed the people of this country down south , beyond the hills of 'Vindhya'. His story was written by the conqueror ,therefore, he has been painted as an 'evil' person .If we compare his character with those of many other kings of our history, he was not much different !

Whatever is the interpretation, we can agree about one point : we do need Goddess Durga to reappear among us to tackle the 'Asurs' of 21st Century!!