Manu Parekh: Banaras - Eternity watches Time

 Manu Parekh: Banaras - Eternity watches Time 

Mapin Publishing and Lund Humphries
224 pages
84 colour illustrations
2007
Hardcover
Rs. 2,000/ £35.00
ISBN: 978-0-85331-963-4

The jacket blurb reads:

Situated on the Ganges, Banaras is a pilgrimage site where the Hindu faithful bathe in the sacred river. The site contains more than 1,500 temples and mosques and 100 bathing and burning ghats, of which Manikarnika ghat is the most sacred. To die in Banaras is to die blessed; many move here to live out their final days.

Manu Parekh has executed a series of paintings inspired by the city. In turn, this book is a collection of the essays by eight writers who have been inspired by his work. Tanuj Berry considers the use of red in the Banaras paintings while Aditi De looks at the theme of holiness and pilgrimage. These essays offer a thorough assessment of the themes and motivations in the series. We hear the voice of Manu Parekh in an interview with the artist in which he explains what attracted him to Banaras and how the city ignited his creativity.

The Banaras series is a symbolic rendering of the relationship between faith and fear, a dynamic which the artist identifies as uniquely Indian. Painted in the Indian Expressionist style, these works have a significant role in the development of modern Indian painting.

The contents:


~ Foreword: Tanuj Berry and Saman Malik
~ A Sanctum of the Human Spirit: Aditi De
~ Night Landscape of Banaras: Peter Osborne
~ Eternity Watches Time: Ashok Vajpeyi
~ Landscape as Mindscape: Meera Menezes
~ Talking da Vinci and Tagore: Meera Menezes
~ The Sensual Engine: How to Find Majaa in Manu Parekh's Banaras: Jeet Thayil
~ No One is Alone in Banaras: Ashok Vajpeyi
~ Banaras in Monsoon: Marilyn Rushton
~ Landscape of Banaras: Peter Osborne
~ Dawn Light Deities: Marilyn Rushton
~ Moonlight Banaras: Marilyn Rushton
~ The Thrice-Named City: A Colour Alphabet: Jeet Thayil
~ Banaras in Red: Tanuj Berry
~ The Blue Surge of Banaras: Aditi De
Chronology
Notes on Contributors.

*        *       *


I have two essays in the beautifully produced Lund Humphries/ Mapin book about artist Manu Parekh's diptychs and triptrychs on the holy city of Banaras.

The opening essay, titled 'A sanctum of the holy spirit,' explores why the city inspires great works of art.

An excerpt:

On the canvas lie mere hints. Of journeys without route maps. Or puzzles sans solutions. Or even landscapes untraceable by a normal intelligence.

What is this mythic landscape? Peopled by Saivite shades, by the eternal union of Varuna and Assi, a fusion beyond mere tributaries or a divine conclave. Or even a vision beyond 108 avatars. Reincarnated, rising from the ashes of each creation, infinitely potent, indestructible beyond imagining. And deeply imbued with the power to wash away all earthly sins.

Awash in brush strokes propelled by emotion, orgasmic colour frets, fumes, fusses and pauses for no man. It synthesizes dawn and dusk in a timeless city. It harnesses the mutual ecstasy of darkness and light. It mutes, suggests, then shrouds over, the potency of a higher power.

Can a city ever embody all the thoughts of its denizens since it rose from the dust? Why should religion be stifled by a name, a face, a local habitation? What dreams, what prayers, what progressive thoughts direct its longevity, its teeming paean to a world beyond the merely mortal?

Is Banaras, then, a search for a resting space for ancestral spirits? A destination between the now and the thereafter?  An elusive eternal search without an anchor, or even a horizon? 

*          *           *

The closing interview-based essay is titled 'The Blue Surge of Banaras.' An excerpt:

 

What distinguishes the energy of Banaras from that of other cities? How does a city evolve from a mere locale to a spiritual harbour? Can inspiration spring from jostling crowds by Ganga-side shrines, a shakti pitha, a jyotirlinga, once named Avimukta? Can great devotion wash away a mortal sin?

I feel my Calcutta period was an inner landscape, while Banaras is an outer one. The latter is distinctive because of its light and shadows, both natural and manmade. In the decoration of a temple, its garba dwar, the drama enacted within it, I glimpsed the varied human activity I so admired in Calcutta. I found here the Indian quality of light I admired in Rabindranath Tagore’s paintings.

But the biggest attraction to me was the people and their collective faith. One day, I was waiting at the Dasashwamedh Ghat. It was filled with young married couples in bright clothes, with red and yellow flowers all around. Soon afterwards, at the Manikarnika Ghat, I saw the same flowers around a body laid out for the last rites.

I vividly recall the shaven head of a widow amidst rituals. People may be uneducated, but not unintelligent. They followed the priest through the rituals without question because of their love for their elders. When I roamed about Banaras at night, often I’d come across a small mandir lit from within. I’d discern a sudden movement ~ a pujari performing rites.

Life and death co-exist so organically in Banaras. That attracts me ~ the everyday evidence of common people bathing in the Ganga, praying at a shrine, then re-entering life. In this series, I tried to create a human space without using human beings. If I had put a person or a face in, it would have become a calendar!