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Catalogue of the exhibition of paintings Organized by ...parvathybaul.srijan.asia/chitrakadhabook.pdf · Catalogue of the exhibition of paintings based on Baul storytelling ... several

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Page 1: Catalogue of the exhibition of paintings Organized by ...parvathybaul.srijan.asia/chitrakadhabook.pdf · Catalogue of the exhibition of paintings based on Baul storytelling ... several
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Text: Parvathy Baul & Sundar RamanathaiyerPhotos: Ravi Gopalan NairDesign: BhattathiriBack cover: Trivandrum Ektara Festival 2012

Limited EditionPublished by aim arts initiative, KolkataPrinted in Kolkata

© Ekatara Kalari, Nedumangad, Trivandrum 695 541email: [email protected]

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Catalogue of the exhibition of paintings

based on Baul storytelling ~ ‘ChitraKatha Geeti’

at Bengal Art Gallery, Ho Chi Min Sarani, Kolkata

5th -11th January 2013 11am-7pm

Organized by

aim art initiative and Karigar Haat

Collaborative Partner

ICCR, Kolkata

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ChitraKatha+

By the grace of my Gurus, I have been a student of Baul for the

last twenty years. My first interaction with the Baul tradition

was in Shantiniketan where I was a student of Painting at

Kalabhavan.

Those days, I would spent long hours sketching Baul Sadhakas at the

Baul festivals, Akharas and the Sadhu gatherings at the Smashan. I

was drawn into their music and lifestyle; I wanted to know more about

the magic of unconditional love that was conveyed to me through

every Baul song I heard, and from every meeting with Baul Sadhakas. I

was eager to be a part of the large space of ̀ Baul Parampara’

which can embrace everyone and everything with

empathy and compassion.

I first entered the world of Baul as a painter. It took me

several years to go deep into the Sadhana of Baul

and become a Baul singer incorporating music, dance,

voice and my whole being in union with Bhava. Having

given up most of my habits for the sake of achieving

perfection in the Baul practice, what remained were

Sanatan Baba ‘reading’ the ChitraKatha painting ~ (Chittore House, Trivandrum, 2003)44

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mostly images which came to me while singing ~

those images in the story of Radha and Krishna.

Slowly images took the shape of ChitraKatha. I

should admit here that the passion for painting

was much stronger in me as a child than music. Music came

much later. There were times when I used to spend long hours

studying birds, trees, insects, rivers and the human life around.

Stories with pictures always fascinated me, and so did the graphic

novels we would get as gifts.

Bengal has a long tradition of storytelling of Ramayana and

Mahabharatha. Yet, storytelling flourished most during the

Vaishnava period through ‘Padavali Leela Kirtan’. The simple love

epics of Radha and Krishna are sung even today from dusk to dawn,

and the stories transcend all the borders of mind and

self-consciousness, elevating the spectators into

a pure inner experience of Bhakti. At times, the

spectators also experience the ̀ Ashta Swatika

Bhava’. I had spent long hours listening to

the `Padavali Leela Kirtan’ at the Vaishnava

festivals in Burdwan, Murshidabad and

Cooch Bihar. I was captivated by the ability of

storytellers to generate a unique experience for

Rupanurag 1 ~ Radha before meeting Krishna and the poet Chandidas 46

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the spectators who already knew the story from beginning to end. At

the same time, I was amazed at the transformative power of a simple

story.

Many may not be aware that Baul has a specific genre of storytelling

known as `Leela Tatwa’, much inspired from the Padavali Leela

Kirtan. Baul sang the life stories of great Baul Sadhakas like Chandidas,

Bilwamangal, Jayadeva, Vidyapati. Both my Gurus - Sanatan Das Baul

and Shashanko Goshai - gave me the repertoire of Baul storytelling.

They inspired me to be inquisitive and innovative. I loved the stories

they taught me, and I would paint those stories and show it to my

Gurus, who would go through every detail of the story-paintings and

give opinions. They both thoroughly enjoyed `reading’ my paintings

All these became fairly relevant in my later years when I wanted to

perform these stories to a large number of spectators from different

languages and cultures. These paintings served as a bridge

between us, offering an open space of universal visual language

of communication.

As I had a clear musical

concept with Baul poems

written by the Sadhakas, I had

Rupanurag 2 ~ Radha watching the reflection of Krishna in the river Yamuna 48

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to find a name. To create dramaturgy in a performance-like situation,

at times I had to compose songs. I named my work as ‘ChitraKatha

Geethi’. I started painting the stories in simple sequential narratives,

using bright colors, which I felt represented the Baul songs I sing. I

really wanted to paint using natural colors; but since I was planning

to travel around with the paintings, they had to be durable and able to

withstand the traumas of long travels. I used acrylic on canvas.

Chitra means picture (paintings, drawings, sketches, doodles etc.)

which every child loves to draw, and Katha means story, which

every child loves to listen to. ‘Geethi’ signifies songs. ‘ChitraKatha

Geethi’, of course, is the art of telling/singing stories with

pictures (mostly sequential art, with or without words, as

in temple Mural paintings, cartoons, comics, graphic

novels etc.).

When the paintings came into the Baul story-telling,

everything seemed to change. It was different from

my earlier performances. Along with the singing and

dancing, the colorful world of paintings devoid of words

seamlessly integrated into the performance. I felt that

storytelling got transformed into mono-theatre. At times, I

became the character in the story.

Rupanurag 3 ~ Enchanted Radha on her way to the divine flute player 410

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I have been working and exploring the possibilities of ChitraKatha

Geethi for the last 14 years, and it has undergone quite a few

transformations. I have also tried to perform outside the Baul array of

stories.

This is my first exhibition of ChitraKatha Geethi in Bengal. Since

picture storytelling is an integral part of Bengali life, I am very

happy to share my work and ChitraKatha Geethi experience with you.

Joy Guru

Let’s hear every story. Let other stories become ours. May our stories

be ONE.

With love and regards,

Parvathy BaulKolkata, 5th Jan 2013

Rupanurag 4 ~ The departure 412

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About Sung Paintings or Cantastoria

ChitraKatha Geethi

‘‘There nowhere is or has been people without narrative…it is simply there

like life itself.’‘-Roland Barthes

Picture-story recitation, although as old as the hills, is also as new

as yesterday. The verbal narrative with paintings exists even today

in all cultures across the globe.

According to the scholars and researchers, Indian tradition of storytelling

accompanied by painted scrolls can be traced back to at least the

second century BC and is known to have existed almost all over the

subcontinent.

Sinologist and scholar Victor Mair traces the ‘roots’ of picture story

performance to India, where he mentions - a low order of Brahmins

called Devalkar made a living by carrying paintings of Gods from

door to door, singing about the powers and attributes of these

Gods, and begging for charity. Mair cites numerous references

to particular kinds of picture scrolls in India from the 6th century,

for example, the `Yamapattaka‘ which display pictures ‘probably

on cloth scrolls or hanging [vertical] [and who sung] of the rewards

Rupanurag 5 ~ Celebrating ‘Rasaleela’ in the full moon 414

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and punishments to be experienced in the realm of Yama, God of the

Underworld’. Yamapattaka is even today performed by the Patuas and

Santal tribe artists of Bengal. References also appear in political tracts of

the time to spies disguising themselves as picture showmen in order to

travel freely. Indeed, from this very early mention of picture storytelling,

the performers are characterized as disreputable, underprivileged, and

nomadic vagrants who made their living from their pictures.

Despite this association with illegitimacy, the stories performed were

religious and their subject matter divine. The narrator of the `Par’ (a

later form of Indian picture story recitation) was called the ̀ Bhopa’, a word

meaning ‘priest for a minor folk deity’. The Bhopa sang the narration while

his assistant (often his wife) held an oil lamp and illuminated the relevant

part of the picture. The paintings themselves were thought to have

special properties. It was believed that to sleep in the same room with a

powerful scroll could heal the sick or the infirm. Paintings were passed

from generation to generation, as were the songs and the knowledge of

how to sing them.

Indian picture-story performance then travelled

through Central Asia with the spread of

Manichaeism and Buddhism into China, where it

became `Pien’, `Pao-Chuan’, and `Layang-Pien’. It

Swargapattaka (Heaven) and Yamapattaka (Hell) 416

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also spread to Indonesia, becoming `Wayang Beber’ - usually

long, horizontally-oriented painted scrolls, unrolled while a

narrator spoke and sung to explain the illustration. From

China, picture-story performance spread to Japan, becoming

the `Etoki’.

Mair tells us that picture-story telling travelled through Persia,

where it was called `Parde-dar’ or `Parde–zan’ in Iran, and on into

Europe at least in the middle ages. By the 12th century in Southern Italy,

painted illuminated scrolls were performed with sung prayer or narrative

recitation - known as ‘Cantastoria’. Cantastoria is an Italian word for

the ancient performance form of picture-story recitation, which involves

sung narration accompanied by reference to painted banners, scrolls,

or placards. It is a tradition belonging to the underdog, to chronically

itinerant people of low social status, yet also inextricably linked to the

sacred. It is a practice very much alive today, existing in a wide variety

of incarnations around the world, and fulfilling very diverse functions for

different populations.

In the early 16th century ̀ Cantambanco’ appeared in Italy. Cantambanco

means ‘bench singer’, as the travelling performer would stand

above the crowd on a little bench, singing and pointing to his pictures

with a stick. In Germany, the `Bankelsanger’ (bench singer) and the

Churning of the ocean and Rahu swallowing sun & moon 418

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`Strassensanger’ (street singer) performed `Moritat’, which might refer

to the sensationalistic nature of these increasingly secular stories, often

taking murder, natural disasters and sordid tales of revenge as their

subjects. In Spain, the picture-story performer was called ̀ Cantor de Feria’

and the picture story itself known as ̀ Retablo de las Maravillas’, tableau (or

picture) of marvels. In France, the performer was known as `Le Chanteur

de cantiques’ or `Crieur de journeaux’. With the advent

of the printing press, these European performers

produced broadsheets which included verse

from their songs and sometimes reproductions

of the pictures as well, that they sold after the

performances.

The Australian aboriginal bark paintings also

represent their history and these history-telling pictures are taken as

powerful entities.

The form has recently found new life and a growing population of

aficionados in North America, particularly among puppeteers, artists,

and activists, many of them influenced over the years by the work of The

Bread and Puppet Theatre. Bread and Puppet’s director, Peter Schumann,

saw Bankelsang as a child growing up in Germany, and later encountered

Cantastoria in Italy as a young man. Picture-story telling appears in Bread

Parvathy painting her first colored ChitraKatha 420

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and Puppet productions in various guises and in many different contexts.

Most often it appears with European-style features: painted or woodcut-

print banners (rather than horizontal scrolls); a solo narrator accompanied

by western musical instrument(s), and banners often with several pictures

enclosed in rectangular frames on each page, looking much like a comic-

book or story-board. However, although the basic characteristics of

Cantastoria are preserved here, over the years Bread and Puppet

Theatre has developed a rich and varied Cantastoria style, all

of its own.

Often Schumann chooses to make the form expansive, and

structures the Cantastoria such that large groups of people can

learn to participate and perform Cantastoria quickly and easily. This

is made possible by organizing participants into two groups or ̀ choruses’

on either side of the paintings, and assigning them simple musical and

movement tasks which they perform in unison, to punctuate the solo

narrator’s delivery.

Perhaps having longest history, picture storytelling is very much

alive in contemporary India as well. Pabujeer Bhopa has received

international acclamation, and is still performed with all its splendor as

part of Rajasthani family rituals, and outside the traditional context in

festivals and performance spaces both nationally and internationally.

First Chitrakatha at Bread and Puppet Theater (Vermont, 2000)422

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The Patua of Bengal despite hard economic times is still flourishing and a

large number of women of the Patua community keep the tradition alive.

With the contribution of art lovers and workers, several Patua painters

have received international acclamation and ‘Pata’ exhibition and

performances are held across the globe.

The old Hamzanama storytelling has almost vanished; the paintings

are kept in different collections all over the world; new paintings have

not been created. However, the tradition of telling ‘Dastaan’ has recently

returned to its practice, and is gaining much popularity among the Urdu

speaking community around the world.

Pictures become breathing characters, singers become inspirers and

encouragers, and everyday citizens become active participants in the

making of their own culture~

References:

Mair, Victor H. Painting and Performance: Chinese Picture Recitation and its

Indian Genesis. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988

Donal, Clare. Museum of Everyday Life, Vermont , USA 2010

Jain, Jyotindra. Picture Showmen: Insights into the Narrative Tradition in Indian Art, Marg

Publication, 1998

Seyller, John. The Adventures of Hamza, Painting and Storytelling in Mughal India,

Washington, DC, 2002

Baul story trilogy at Beirut, Lebanon (2001) 424

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arvathy Baul(from the mystic singer performer tradition of West Bengal)

PARVATHY BAUL (Mousumi Parial; born 1976) from West Bengal, now

lives and works in Trivandrum, Kerala since 1997. During her study at

Kalabhavan, Shantiniketan she was introduced to the Baul and got

initiated.

Parvathy Baul sings and dances with minimal use of Baul instruments

like Duggie, Ektara and Nupur all played by herself. She inherited this

style from the ‘Parampara’ of Shri Sanatan Das Baul (Bankura District,

who followed the style of the legendary Baul singer-practitioner

Shri Nitai Khapa) and Shri Shashanko Goshai (from the Gurukul of the

acclaimed singer-practitioner Shri Vrindavan Goshai and Shri Nityananda

Goshai of Mushidabad), who left his body at the age of 100 in March

2006.

For over a period of fourteen years she has been travelling to meet masters

of Bengal music traditions as a part of her search for Baul songs and

its practice. She practices various disciplines of painting, print making,

theatre, dance, art of storytelling, folksongs of Bengal, and yoga.

Parvathy did her first story-telling performance at Bread and Puppet Theatre

in Vermont,USA, where she was profoundly inspired by the works of Peter

Slaying of the demon Rahu at No Theatre Japan (2005) 426

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Schuman. After this, she soon worked on her next performance and was

invited to perform in Lebanon. Her first performance of ChitraKatha Geethi

in Europe was at Ethno Museum in Geneva and later at the Festival de

l’Imaginaire in Paris. She was invited by Rietburg Museum, Zurich, to

recreate the stories of Hamzanama based on the original works of

Hamzanama painters from the Mughal period.

Parvathy has performed ChitraKatha Geethi giving workshops in several

countries. She has performed ChitraKatha Geethi in Trivandrum, Kolkata,

Pondicherry and Auroville. She has exhibited ChitraKatha Geethi in

Trivandrum (2002) at Rietburg Museum Zurich (2003) and at Ethno

Museum Geneva (2011).

She has created a new series of stories based on ‘Rupanurag’ for the Ethno

Museum, Geneva. Parvathy does woodcuts inspired by the metaphors

of Baul songs. She collaborates with Ravi Gopalan Nair for carving and

printing. All her woodcut prints are limited editions.

Radha Bhav, Trivandrum (2011) 428

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My stories so far are:

Stories of Baul: Trilogy - The Womb, Chandidas and Kalia

The Secret Womb Story of Sage Shukadev

Radha Bhav

Hamzanama: The Story of Prophet Ilias

Hamzanama: The Defeat of Emperor Zumrud Shah

The Slaying of Demon Rahu

Rupanurag

The plates printed in this Catalogue are from ‘Rupanurag’

series, the first performance of which will be held in Paris in

2014.

Painting Rupanurag at home (2010) 430

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