QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER Apr-Jun ’11aesthetics-rashmipoddar.com/images/4-Qtrly Apr-Jun 2011.pdf ·...

QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER Apr-Jun ’11

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2011

Istvan Keul delivering the lecture on Yoginis in Varanasi

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2011 1

Quarterly Newsletter

We are nearing the end of our academic year, which begins in July and ends in April, giving ourselves the

months of May and June not only to take stock but also to prepare ourselves anew. This quarter has been

remarkable as the following report will testify. Looking back over the past nearly 4 years since we embarked on

our journey, we find that we have shared 124 presentations with our audience. These can be broken up as –

A) Indian Aesthetics

1) Illustrated lectures – 18

2) Short courses – 12

B) Criticism & Theory

1) Lectures – 12

2) Teaching Seminars – 2

3) Conference – 1

C) Community Engagement

1) Presentations – 77

2) Film Series – 1

3) Plays – 1

The short courses, teaching seminars, conference, film series and plays have been spread over 2 days to a

week long. All of the above is besides our two courses – the year long Post Graduate Diploma in Indian

Aesthetics and the half year long Art, Criticism & Theory for which our admissions are now open. Do write to

us, should you be interested. Though we always aspire to do better, we have much to be proud of. We count

on your support, as always.

Indian AestheticsTaking the cue from the endless inventiveness of Islamic design and

ornamentation which was the last lecture of the previous quarter, the

resource scholars of the Post Graduate Diploma in Indian Aesthetics

introduced the students to The Poetics of Painting which saw an

amalgam of literature, theoretical texts, manuscripts and their

illustrations and illuminations. We began with understanding The

Dignity of Measured Rhythmic Tread in Early Jain and Buddhist

Manuscripts and went on to examining The Courtly Bibliographic

Tradition in the Sultanate Period as exemplified in the Timurid,

Persian, and Indigenous Painting Traditions. The Imperial Library of

the great Mughal and its myriad worlds of biographic pageantry,

realistic portraiture and naturalistic concern as well as their eloquent

illustrated narratives were taught and discussed.

The Sultans of the Deccan and their artists with their rare sensitivity

alongside Rajasthani patrons and artists were subject matter of a

couple of lectures. Continuing our thread of Rasa, the majestic

intertwining of Shringara and Bhakti were exemplified through the

literary and poetic visions of the Dark Lord Krishna as seen in the

Bhagavata Purana and the Gita Govinda. Genre paintings of the

Ragamala and Barahmasa drew this section to a close. Colonialism,

Orientalism, Nationalism and Modernism along with Popular Culture

became the foci subsequently. The arrival of British professionals and

the interaction of cultures showed a widening of horizons and a

changing of attitudes. Portraiture and landscape both in oils and water-

colours as well as architecture helped exemplify the now important

aesthetic categories of the Sublime, Picturesque and the Exotic.

Natural History and Human Society were responded to by the

indigenous “company artists.” Modernism, Post-Modernism and the

Contemporary Visual Arts were discussed against the backdrop of

Western Art Movements. The architecture of 19th & 20th century and



its many permutations and interventions and the

creation of the fantastical Indo-Saracenic hybrid were

discussed along with the Modernist movement.

Popular Culture beginning with Kalighat Painting and

its images from a changing world to the aesthetics and

politics of the printed image in India drew the course

to a close.

Following is a brief look at our programmes during

the quarter:

Telling Tales: The Freer Vasanta Vilasa

(Wednesday, 9 February 2011)

A seminal 11 metre long cotton scroll painted in

1451 CE for the patron Chandrapala and acquired by

the Freer Gallery, Smithsonian, through the facilitation

of Coomaraswamy, is the only extant example of an

illustration of the lyrical poem Vasanta Vilasa written

by an unknown author. Though 8 medieval

manuscripts survive of this example of Phagu which

describes the pleasures of spring time, the Freer

Vasanta Vilasa is an exemplar of how a scribe called

Ratnagara took on the role of a commentator by

adding Sanskrit and Prakrit verses to the original early

Gujarati. Nachiket Chanchani took the audience

through the various unusual strategies used by both,

the painter and the scribe, to create a performative

role for the scroll when it was brought out by the

patron to celebrate Basant Panchami. Beginning with

emotions of spring time and the conventional

description of the pangs of separation and joys of

union experienced by the Nayakas and Nayikas, the

scroll testifies to the vocabulary of earlier Sanskrit

poets, notably Kalidasa and Magha and the Alankaras

of Sanskrit poetics. The division of organizational

space through registers and the placement of the

paintings show not only analogical thinking but also

the connection with textile makers and stone carvers.

The speaker argued against the view of earlier

scholars who had not only dismissed the scroll as

unaccomplished, poor in quality and lacking in

elegance and charm but also claiming that there was

no relationship between painting and verse. The

persuasive presentation showed the interplay of text

and context and the reconfiguration of the creative and

cultural processes of earlier texts.

Blending into the Religious Landscape: The Yoginis

in Varanasi (Thursday, 24 February 2011)

Beginning with views of the Yogini temple at

Hirapur and looking at the antecedents of the Yogini

cult which led to the creation of several of these open

air shrines in medieval India, Prof. Istvan Keul who

teaches History of Religions at the Norwegian

University of Science and Technology, Trondheim

(Norway), eloquently discussed the Caumsathi Devi

temple at Varanasi. He discussed the early beginnings

of the worship of Yakshas and Yakshis and their

assimilation into formal Indic religions. He opined that

textual sources from the 12th century seem to indicate

that the important religious centre on the Ganges had

a sanctuary dedicated to this group of tantric

goddesses at the beginning of the second millennium.

The somewhat later Kashikhanda, the most important

hymnic text on the mythology and religious topography

of the city, can be read as describing and at the same

time facilitating the gradual blending of an esoteric cult

into the broader religious stream of an urban,

devotionalized Shaktism.


‘A brave and intrepid general’: Tipu Sultan and the

Mysore Scots (Friday, 11 March 2011)

This talk by Anne Buddle dealt with that period in

history between the four Mysore wars and little

thereafter when South India was continuously jaded

by shifting alliances and changing boundaries. This

was a time in history when armies were normally

accompanied by draughtsmen, surveyors, and military

artists. The British often learnt the local languages or

were accompanied by Jain, Tamil or Telegu

assistants. A large part of this history has been vividly

captured in both words and pictures by distinguished

Scotsmen accompanying the British army. Of them,

Major Dirhom, Home, Lindsay, Kirkpatrick, and

George Willison have left behind records which go as

vivid proof of not only the East being “the compass to

wealth” and Tipu being an outstanding administrator

but also of the wealth of design and immaculate

craftsmanship achieved during Tipu’s reign. Tipu’s

fascination with the tiger began when his adversary,

Hector Monroe’s son, succumbed to a tiger attack.

The tiger is found on helmets, armour, Tipu’s sword,

his quiver, his throne, to name just a few objects. The

main tiger head is made in gold with crystal teeth and

the jewelled smaller heads from the same throne are

inlayed with rubies emeralds and diamonds. The

Tiger, which was first stylised by Tipu, continues to

occupy the minds of fashionistas even today.

The Great Temple at Thanjavur: One Thousand

Years, 1010 to 2010 Old Problems, New Thoughts

(Tuesday, 22 March 2011).

2010 CE was the millennial year of the

consecration of The Great Temple at Thanjavur – the

Brihadishvara, built and sponsored by the visionary

monarch Rajaraja-I Chola. Arguably the supreme

achievement of the Chola Era and one of the greatest

masterpieces of Hindu architecture and art in the

world, this temple was the focus of an impeccable,

illustrated lecture by the renowned scholar Dr. George

Michell. Beginning with the inscriptions which

immaculately recorded every aspect of the execution

and administration of this monument, Dr. Michell

pointed out the genius of the architect as well as the

talents of the numerous artists employed to carve and

paint the temple. The two-storeyed sanctum

sanctorum and the unfinished mandapa of the upper

level have raised questions in the past as have the

identity of some of the regal figures in the murals

surrounding the sanctum. Why were the four-armed

forms of Shiva placed in such a way on the outer walls

that the two rear arms cannot be really seen? Why is

there an entire register of Shiva as Tripurantaka on

the outer wall? Dr. Michell recommended answers to

several such problems. The fragile, never seen,

splendid murals in the mezzanine showing Rajaraja

worshipping at Chidambaram, Tripurantaka and a pair

of ascetics, to name a few of the panels, added an

amazing dimension to the understanding of Indian wall

painting. Most studies of the temple have focused on

the Chola Period. Dr. Michell drew attention to

crucial contributions of the later Nayaka and Maratha

patrons of the 16th-19th centuries, and how the British

used the temple as ammunition storage. All in all, it

was a comprehensive lecture on the architecture,

sculptures, paintings, historical records, as

well as the ritual and cultural life of this stupendous

monument.

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2011 5Nachiket Chanchani talks about the Vasanta Vilasa with an image of the scroll in the backgound


Criticism & TheoryWe are now in the process of formulating the Art,

Criticism and Theory course for its fourth year. This

course which is now nearly six-months long since last

year has arrived at a teaching structure through our

methodological convictions and then experiences over

the previous years. This experience includes our

multiple conversations with the various resource

persons who have taught at the course, which has

been a valuable source for our thinking and

restructuring of the course, to arrive at some format

that best serves our intentions in running a teaching

course of this nature. We continue to look forward to

strengthening our writing component of the structure.

We introduced working sessions last year to engage

the student-participants in rigorously writing more;

however we sure need to work more in this direction.

In the next round of this course, we plan to further

develop the working session model and even

introduce a new tutorial model. The working

sessions will design exercises to get the student-

participants to write short notes and essays, in an

attempt to get them familiar with their own style,

interest points and comfort-levels in writings. In this

direction we also propose that the students

meaningfully engage with certain important and

interesting shows and exhibitions that are going on in

art galleries and museums during the duration of the

course. This will allow the participants to also engage

with the curators, artists and reviewers involved with

the show.

A course which is taught with such a wide range of

resource persons also needs a connecting thread,

which was formalised last year with a tutorial

structure.

This year we will introduce one more level to the

tutorial model, where a curated set of readings from a

specific set of scholars will be engaged with

throughout the duration of the course. These readings

will focus on India and its issues through the period of

the twentieth century. This kind of a parallel reading

course, will allow the students a constant engagement

with a particular set of Ideas tied through a historical

narrative of the twentieth century and modernity. This

along with the course that engages with Art and

History, Art and Criticism, schools of philosophy and

theory, and the various issues, concepts, subjects,

and practices in the world of visual arts, will give the

participants a focussed engagement in a particular

area, allowing them to focus on specific historical

engagements with the arts, a building up of

arguments, and a particular lineage of historical

thoughts regarding the arts.

Our interest and intention is constantly to introduce

the participants of this course to a rigorous and

scholarly engagement with the arts, where writing,

theorising and criticism are the focus. This critical

engagement is very essential, and the methodology

and ethics of practice should be the cornerstone of all

such engagements.

Admissions for ACT 2011 are open from April 2011 .


Following is a brief look at our programmes during

the quarter:

Revisiting Phalke’s Kaliya Mardan (Monday, 14

March 2011)

The second half of the 19th cent. saw an explosion

in Popular Visual Culture with the advent of the

camera and printing presses. The founding of art

schools was another watershed moment. Artists

adapted academic realism to the visual interpretation

of Indian mythology and portraiture, creating their own

genre of magical realism which had a phenomenal

impact on all manner of cultural production including

theatre, painting, photography, lithographs and finally

cinema. The lasting impact of Raja Ravi Varma on

Indian sensibility cannot be underestimated – the

cinematic genius of D. G. Phalke is one such

testimony. Suresh Chabria, former Director of the

National Film Archive of India, Pune, situated Phalke

in the history of Indian cinema. Phalke’s

apprenticeship in photography and lithography as well

as his training in multimedia lay the ground for the

understanding of this multidimensional personality who

was born in Triambakeshwar, Nasik.

Suresh Chabria at the Kaliya Mardan lecture

Watching a film on the passion of Christ during

Christmas in 1910 led him to wonder whether the

sounds of India would ever be able to see Indian

images of Gods and Goddesses on the screen. The

Swadeshi Movement led him to make Raja

Harishchandra and later Kaliya Mardan, both iconic

moments of Indian cinema. Chabria spoke of Phalke’s

interaction with Cecil Hepworth and the editor of

Bioscope Magazine in London. Frontality and insertion

of spectator into the frame were some of the

theoretical frameworks discussed. It ended with

screening a recently restored print of Kaliya Mardan,

accompanied by live Marathi Natya Sangeet

composed by Dr. Kshama Vaidya. Watching a

silent film with live music was truly a memorable

experience.

Forthcoming Programmes:

‘From Coomaraswamy to Ambedkar: Tracing the

Vanished Horizons of Subaltern Art in India’

(Thursday, 14 April 2011)

Nancy Adajania will develop a deep political history

for the discussion around ‘folk’ and ‘tribal’ art that

exercises the contemporary Indian art world. Adajania

will contextualise this recent discussion, centred on K.

G. Subramanyan, J. Swaminathan and Jyotindra Jain,

within a century-long debate over the interrelated

conceptual and representational categories of nation,

caste, tribe, the village, folk art and tribal culture. She

will annotate and analyse a genealogy of critical

thinkers including Havell, Coomaraswamy, Tagore,

Gandhi, and Ambedkar.

Dr. Kshama Vaidya (2nd from left) with the natya sangeet mandali



Community EngagementFollowing is a brief look at our programmes during the

quarter:

The Chawls of Mumbai: Galleries of Life (Tuesday,

25 January 2011)

How and why is the chawl unique among the

various building typologies located throughout

Mumbai? How has its limited living space impacted

cultural and social formations? These are some of the

myriad questions raised through the book discussion

witnessed by a packed audience. The book in

question was the recently published “The Chawls of

Mumbai – Galleries of Life” edited by Neera Adarkar.

With South and Central Mumbai home to about 16,000

such structures, and their makeover now imminent,

the citizen involvement was palpable. Neera Adarkar

introduced the book and the rationale of its structure,

stressing the need for a sequel to fill in the

unavoidable gaps in this publication. Peppered with

nostalgia, Atul Dodiya relived his life in the chawl that

was home to his family till not so long ago. His studio

continues to be in that space, testifying to the

important neighbourly interaction vital to his creativity.

Gautam Chatterjee, the voice of the government,

spoke of the sensitivity required to deal with the

inherently conflicting pulls and pushes underlying their

redevelopment today. Patiently fielding questions, he

assured a careful study of this distinct symbol of

Mumbai as outlined by the book. Three carefully

selected readings by Meena Menon, Mustansir Dalvi

and Mitra Mukherjee brought out the varied memories

and personal narratives of some of the book’s

contributors.

Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability

(Saturday, 29 January 2011 )

Graphic books have become an important literary

genre specially after the hugely successful

“Persepolis” by Marianne Satrapi nearly a decade ago.

Pictures telling stories alluringly is an accepted fact

right from the early days of the first comics.

“Bhimayana – Experiences of Untouchability”, a recent

publication on the life of Bhimrao Ambedkar, a Mahar

by birth, proves this dictum with much élan. Illustrated

delightfully by the Pardhan Gond couple Subhash and

Durgabai Vyam, this book was the subject of a panel

discussion. The publisher S. Anand of Navayana set

the tone by presenting the various stages of the

book’s creation specially outlining how the trademark

“Digna” patterns of the Vyams morphed into an

essential element of the design. Ranjit Hoskote’s

insightful query of whether the book was a

biographical story of Bhimrao Ambedkar (a la

Ramayana) or whether it was furthering a form of

Buddhism (such as Mahayana) remained enigmatic

and unresolved.

Situating Ambedkar in the centrality of the nation’s

history and commenting on the tardiness of placing his

portrait in Parliament, were Jerry Pinto’s opening


remarks leading to Urmila Pawar’s heartfelt

reflections on India’s entrenched caste system.

The continued oppression of the dalits, the lack

of media support as well as the indifference of

the public at large were matters of grave

concern. It was hoped that discussions such

as this would bring into active consciousness

and keep alive this vexing problem that

threatens the social fabric.

Emerging Publics and Urban Experience

(Monday, 7 February 2011)

Referencing and quoting profusely from

Michel Foucault, Adam Fergusson, Gary

Becker, Ronald Coase, Badjou, Bernard

Stiegler, Philip Dick and Partha Chatterjee,

Prof. Scott Lash, Director – Centre for Cultural

Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London,

started his presentation with the definition of

Neo-Liberalism and its impact on world

economies since 1978-79. Connecting the

recent sovereign debt crisis of various

European economies to the Second Post

Colonial moment of China, India and some

African countries, he spoke of the different

kinds of urban spaces and publics that have

emerged. The importance of Bio Power and

Bio Politics in building data bases and

paradigms of governance as well as the “nature

of the firm” was discussed. The domain of law

construed as mechanistic and rigid would lead

to going beyond it, to justice, through violence.

Different modes of opening up new publics

such as contingent public spaces, private

S Anand with an image from Bhimayana in the background

provision of infrastructure were mentioned. He ended

the lecture by looking at the philosophy of technology

and how it creates urban space. This socio-technical

system which is meta-stable and of a mutating order

looks at the experience of Past, Present and Future in

the Now and is the Infinity of Infinities – void – that

from which everything emerges.

Dhvani IV – Celebrating Bhimsenji’s Legacy

(Saturday, 26 February 2011).

Though JPM has presented evenings of classical

music and dance earlier, this evening which was a

homage to Pt. Bhimsen Joshi was not only poignant

but also musically superb. Curated insightfully by

Bakul Bhavsar, a well-known aficionado in Mumbai

cultural circles and an impeccable collector, the 2 hr.

presentation consisting of audio and video recordings,

journeyed the musical life of B.J. as he was

affectionately called by his intimate circle. Opening

with the national anthem which reflected Panditji’s love

for his country, the next video excerpted from James

Beveridge’s film captured the musician’s performance

of Miyan ki Malhar in the 70s. On the heels was

another video showcasing the grandeur of Shuddh

Kalyan by this Kirana maestro. A Raga not generally

associated with him, Bageshree Kanada, enchanted,

followed by an even rarer rendition of the famous

Siddheshwari Thumri – Ab Ke Sawan Ghar Aaye.

Many Cultures, One Country: Perspectives on

Multiculturalism (Tuesday, 1 March 2011)

Multiculturalism in today’s globalised context has

become an exceedingly important and contentious

issue with political leaders, academics, NGOs and

concerned citizens, all engaged. David Cameron’s

recent remarks triggered off a series of debates

between the rightists and leftists. In collaboration with

Asia Society and the Consulate of Canada, JPM

organised a session which included remarks and a

panel discussion moderated by Parmesh Shahani.

Canada’s historical assimilation of immigrants starting

from the 19th cent. British and French colonization

was put forward by Robin Higham, a former member

of the Canadian Foreign Service and currently a

Senior Fellow at the Graduate School of Public and

International Affairs, University of Ottawa.

Contemporary issues of social cohesion and national

identity were fore-grounded against recent debates

both within the government and outside. Chung Ying

LIN – Singapore Consul-General in Mumbai described

how Singapore has succeeded in creating a

multicultural society even though 76% of its population

is Chinese. The balance Malays, Indians and

Eurasians though minorities are given a voice

politically, economically and culturally. Education has

clearly played an important role. The evening ended

with incisive participation of the audience and on a

note of how a continuous dialogue between “us/we”

and the “other” was key.

Artists as Filmmakers (Thursday, 24 March 2011)

Behroze Gandhy, filmmaker and lecturer on Indian

cinema began her lecture on the linkages between

visual art and cinema by acknowledging her

indebtedness to the seminal work done by Partha

Mitter, Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Geeta Kapoor and

others. Charting the great artistic innovations in

different eras, she began with finding connections


between Ravi Varma and Dadasaheb Phalke. The

formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 and

the coming of the Lumiere Brothers representative in

1896 impacted Varma and Phalke. The circulation of

mass prints at the turn of the century in Bombay and

Poona as well as in Calcutta helped in the formation of

an early revolutionary nationalism which gave birth to

a neo-classical, pan-native Indian style. It was the

selling of the imagination back to a classical,

mythological, golden period. The coming of cinema

through Phalke saw the frozen moment now getting

movement. The moving image production demanded

a series of alignments and using a clip from the 1919

Kaliya Mardan, the speaker pointed out not only the

Swadeshi Movement of 1895 but also the

democratization of the gaze through frontality. Going

to Eastern India, Behroze spoke of the nationalism of

the Bengal School juxtaposing it against the

internationalism of Shantiniketan and cited the

attempts made by Rabindranath Tagore, Nandlal

Bose, Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij

in shedding the inward historicist gaze and embracing

modernism as well as Pan-Asianism after Okakura’s

visit. The influence of Baij on Ritwik Ghatak through a

(L to R) Parmesh Shahani, Robin Higham, Chung Ying Lin at the Multiculutalism panel



clip of the iconic Meghe Dhaka

Tara was evident. Behroze then

spoke of the 30s work of Amrita

Sher Gil and its connection with

Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali

through a clip. The second half of

the presentation saw a brief history

of Indian documentary films and

the fillip they received post Second

World War. The factual films on

social issues now moved to other

subjects and the patronage of the

Films Division saw some artists

now making films. M. F. Husain’s

“Eyes of a Painter” filmed through

his visits in some parts of

Rajasthan in 1967 and Tyeb

Mehta’s “Koodal” made in 1970 are

two examples of Jean

Bhownagary’s visionary support.

Koodal which in Tamil means “a

meeting point, the union, an assembly of images” has

earned fame through Dilip Chitre’s well known critical

acclaim. The last film to be screened was Akbar

Padamsee’s “Syzygy” made in 1969-70 as part of the

Vision Exchange Workshop. The evening ended with

an animated discussion on how far these artists have

succeeded in challenging the narrative tradition as

well as on other pertinent issues.

Forthcoming Programmes:

Bombay – A Perspective of the City From Above

(Tuesday, 5 April 2011).Dr. Jehangir Sorabjee

The Geography of Bombay lies largely unnoticed

but was its most appealing aspect when colonisers

came and settled here to make it the commercial hub

it is today. The broad harbour and numerous ranges

of the Konkan coast were described as being some of

the most beautiful vistas that an approaching ship

might espy. The extensive broad coastline, the hills of

Malabar and Cumballa, the Backbay, the Breach and

the Hornby Vellard, the garden estates of Parel and

Mazagaon all made this a very beautiful city and

thanks to clear light and unpolluted skies much was

constantly visible. Now we can see glimpses of this

topography only from above and here in a collection of

Aerial Images of the city Dr Jehangir Sorabjee

exposes the city as we can rarely view it.

Behroze Gandhy during the Artists as Filmmakers lecture

We know we have made a difference. Our endeavour to encourage and facilitate creative expression meaningfully,

continues with the firm belief that the arts are indispensable to the well-being of the community and the individual.

Dr George Michell during the lecture on the Great Temple at Thanjavur


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