[Reader-list] third post

[Abhik Samanta]

[Reader List] Third posting:Images and text in the Gita Press publications

This posting will try to explore the relationship between words and pictures
in a broad thematic ways which will be developed further in later postings
intended primarily in the research categories suggested by 'national' or
'popular' art . Nationalism becomes implicated chiefly through a sense of
time in a subject which is never explicitly national. Time here is the most
crucial component as it has to be repeated but cannot have any ostensible
existence in the present. The existence of time must escape everything that
the present is composed of and consequently the images do not depict themes
in a reality of composition that is contemporary. The depiction is in a past
that is imagined, generating a sense of time that can only be depicted
through symbols. Quite different from Mughal or 18th cent indian painting
which I will not go into here. Symbols are not definitive since they occur
in a narrative that is the container of the sense of time. The mental
journeys symbolized by the two lakes in the one sprouting a lotus beside the
meditating boy and the one which lies across the man pondering an arrow
reflect different encounters. This difference reinforces the existence of
these images as symbols. The symbols also establish the relationship between
images and generate a sense of style.

The string of a bow which is tied and one which is untied is another
example. The title of the books here can become a part of the picture in
orienting the nature of time that the reader will be or has been introduced
into. The location of these images in a stylized time of the past attains
completion through words. It is as if the images are incomplete in
themselves.This becomes a stylistic constituent of Gita Press art only
because the images themselves are construed in the context of themes that
have a circulation in contemporary society that are independent of what the
Gita Press prints. The themes lie in the realm of inspiration of the
painters when the paintings are produced. The paintings are only then chosen
for textual selections they can be appropriately printed onto. Each painting
is printed a number of times from the large collection that the Gita Press
possesses, some of which can be seen at the Lila Chitra Mandir museum at the
Gorakhpur headquarters. The chief painters like B. K. Mitra, Bhagwan,
Jagannath have long since departed and their works serve the purpose even
today.

The picture of Amulya Vachan, a tract by Jayadayal Goyandaka , shows a
standing picture of Ram with a bow which is strung up. This highlights
Amulya , meaning without an equal in value, as a metaphor of time. A time in
which the figure of Ram is dressed for action, with a quiver of arrows
prominent on his back. Similarly another figure of Ram shows him seated on a
throne with the string of his bow loose. The tract is entitled Vastavik Tyag
or the Reality of Renunciation. Here again reality becomes a metaphor of
time through the accompanied symbol of the unstrung bow. The bow can be seen
as a symbol in another context in a tract entitled Grihastha Mein Kaise
Rahen or  How Does One Live In A Household The picture is a very
uncharacteristic family picture of the God Shiva where a strung bow appears
in the hands of Kartikeya , Shiva's son who is seated beside his mother to
his left. This is a time of departure from the normal beings of the Gods
which inaugurates the time of the family. This is suggested most by the
bearers of the Gods who sit lumped together in front, the bull of Shiva
having the pride of place followed by the lion of Shakti. Clearly the
household is a time of being and non being which is why the junior most
member is in a time of normalcy as a time of becoming.

Another picture shows jewellery as a metaphor. Manushya Jivan Ka Uddeshya or
the Aim Of  Human Life shows Vishnu whose body is covered in jewels and
appears to be exhuding light . Vishnu as a representative of the generic
Bhagwan or Ishwara who stands askance i.e. in a mode of portraiture where he
does not look directly at the viewer. The onus of movement which would come
from reading the text is on the viewer and Vishnu is captured in a pose. The
depiction of jewellery is ostensibly central because jewellery seems to
almost violate the perspective principle which has so often been seen as the
hall mark of traditional Indian art though not the Gita Press or other
contemporary art. Jewellery is thus the metaphor of static time and the
viewer or the reader moves towards it located in another metaphor of static
time.The images that i talk about can be found at the blog  gitainpress
@blogger .com
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