He dared to study art
when back in his native Kashmir, people would generally say,” fine, art is
okay, but let us know what you are going to do in your life to earn a living.
“Every type of art was looked down upon in orthodox Kashmiri society. It applied
to theatre, painting, music and dance.
However determined and resolute, at a young age of 15, Ratan Parimoo
left Kashmir for Baroda to study painting. He left Kashmir when the wounds of
the Tribal Invasion by Pakistan had
just healed up and people had started breathing fresh air .It was 1951 and he
was certainly not sure what future lay in store for him .Luckily, he came under
the tutelage and mentorship of Prof N S Bendre, a renowned artist of the country
who worked for more than 16 years at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara
(1950-1966) as HOD painting. Bendre had a special liking for the people of the
J&K state. He had worked as journalist and painter in the state for about 3
years (1936 to 1939). Triloke Kaul,
well-known artist informs that for some time, Bendre stayed in the Nawa Bazaar
house of Dr Shiv Ji .And Bendre would go out of his way to help budding artists
from the state who came to Baroda. At Baroda , apart from Ratan
Parimoo, two more prominent artist from Kashmir namely G R Santosh and Triloke
Kaul were also trained by N S Bendre .Bendre had also done a
series of Kashmir landscapes .
After completing his graduation in Fine Arts from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda in 1955, Parimoo did M A in (Fine) Creative Painting, Post Graduate Diploma in Museology from M.S. University, Baroda in 1957. He also obtained his graduate degree in History of Art from London University in 1963 and Ph.D. in Art history from M.S. University, Baroda in 1972. He received Commonwealth Scholarship to study Art History at the Courtauld Institute of the University of London from 1961 to 1963. In 1974, he was granted the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Scholarship for his work on Buddhist Art. He has decorated the esteemed posts of- Lecturer in Art History, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda 1959; Reader and Head, Department of Art History and Aesthetics 1966; Professor in Art History and Aesthetics from the years 1966 to 1978; and also the Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda from the years 1975 to 1981. He served as the Director of the L D Museum and N C Mehta Gallery in Ahmedabad from 2007 to 2019. Apart from being a teacher and a trained painter, Ratan Parimoo happens to be a highly respected art historian of the country. Having written hundreds of articles for national and international journals and delivered similar number of lectures on art and history of art, Dr. Parimoo has published more than 20 scholarly books on art and history of art. Some books authored by him can be listed as under:-
1.Paintings of the three Tagores, Abanindranath, Gaganendranath, Rabindranath – Chronology and Comparative Study (PhD Thesis), MS University of Baroda, Vadodara,1973.
2. Studies in Modern Indian Art, Kanak
Publications-Books India, New Delhi, 1975.
3. Life of Buddha in Indian Sculpture, Kanak
Publications, New Delhi, 1982. Enlarged edition, DK Printworld, Delhi,
2009.
4. Sculptures of Sheshashayi Vishnu, MS University of
Baroda, Vadodara, 1983.
5. The Pictorial World of Gaganendranath Tagore,
National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, 1995.
6.Studies in Indian Sculptures, Essays in New Art
History, Books & Books, New Delhi, 2000.
7. Studies on the Art of Raja Ravi Varma, Thrissur
(Kerala), 2006.
8. NC Mehta Collection Vol I, Gujarati School and
Jaina Manuscript Paintings, Ahmedabad, 2010.
9. The Art of Three Tagores, From Revival to
Modernity, Kumar Gallery, New Delhi, 2011.
10. NC Mehta Collection Vol II, Rajasthani, Central
Indian, Pahari and Mughal Paintings, Ahmedabad, 2013
11. Treasures from the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum],
Ahmedabad, 2013.
12.Gaganendranath Tagore, A Retrospective, an
Exhibition Catalogue, Victoria Memorial Hall in collaboration with Rabindra
Bharati Society, Kolkata, 2014.
13. From the Earthly World to the Realm of Gods,
Kasturbhai Lalbhai Collection of Indian Drawings. Ahmedabad, 2019.
Apart from authoring above books, Parimoo has also edited some scholarly books on art and history of art which are considered as reference material for research and further elucidation. Some books falling in this category could be listed as, ‘Vaiṣhnavism in Indian Art and Culture’, ‘Ellora Caves – Sculptures and Architecture’, ‘The Paintings of Rabindranath Tagore,( For Lalit Kala Akademi)’, ‘The Arts of Ajanta – New Perspectives’,’ Creative Arts in Modern India’, ‘The Legacy of Raja Ravi Varma – The Painter’, ‘Ellora Caves – Sculptures and Architecture’ and ‘Calligraphy and Art of Writing in Jain Manuscripts’.
He has also presented more than 140 research based papers in various seminars across the length and breadth of the country and also written critical essays and articles on art and history of art that stand published on various magazines and journals within the country and outside . And Ratan Parimoo is one of the pioneering art historians of post-independence India whose work is internationally known and recognised for its deep research and honesty.
Early art historians emphasized the European tradition, celebrating its Greek and Roman origins and the ideals of academic art. By the mid-20th century, a standard narrative for “Western art” was established that traced its development from the prehistoric, ancient, and medieval Mediterranean to modern Europe and the United States. Art from the rest of the world, labeled “non-Western art,” was typically treated only marginally and from a colonialist perspective. However, the immense sociocultural changes that took place in the 20th century led art historians to amend these narratives. Accounts of Western art that once featured only white males were revised to include artists of color and women. Interest in non-Western art increased, accelerating dramatically in recent years when Asia, with its abundant art treasure emerged as the focus. This led to the development of Art History as serious subject that had power to transform lives and build understanding across cultures. The Indian art historians in this changed scenario remained broadly confined to study and decimation of ancient and mediaeval art without studying the same in global context. Ratan Parimoo is the lone scholar artist who used the European procedural framework with Indian aesthetic theories of Rasa and Alamkara for the investigation and analysis of Indian art. A deep study of Buddhist, Puranic and regional texts enabled him to interpret and conduct serious study of Indian sculpture and painting.
Parimoo was also one of the founder members of Baroda Group
and has been instrumental in molding careers and languages of many would-be
artists as well as showing liberalism in art whenever needed. His training in
painting and emphasis on the inter-relationship of the arts, history, theories
and research made his teaching incomparable. Parimoo was one
of the youngest painters to respond to the 'abstract style' of the first
modernist movements of the country after independence.
.EXHIBITIONS
It would fill many pages to list all the solo or group exhibitions
that he attended in India and abroad. This journey began with his joining the
National Exhibition of Lalit Kala Akademi in 1955 at a young age of 19.
Therafter some important exihbitions in which he participated are as under:-
(1) 1956,57,58,59 …Baroda Group of Artists Exhibitions in Bombay.
(2) 1958 …First one-man show, Srinagar.
(3) 1962 …South Asian Artists, Durham, U.K.
(4) 1964, 65 and 75 …Joint shows with wife Naina Dalal, at Bombay,
Delhi and I.P.C.L., Baroda.
(5) 1972 …Retrospective Exhibition at Delhi, Rabindra Bhawan.
(6) 1975, 1976 …Alumni Exhibition, Faculty of Fine Arts, Silver
Jubilee, Bombay, and Baroda.
(7) 1973, 75 …One-man shows at Bombay.
(8) 1976 …One-man show in Delhi.
(9) 1979 …One-man show in Ahmedabad.
(10)1990 … Eight Baroda Artists Exhibition, New Delhi
(11)1991-1992 …Artists Against Communalism, Delhi
(12) 1992 …Birla Akademi of Art, Calcutta, Silver Jubilee Exhibition,
West Zone.
(13)1995 …Bharat Bhavan Biennale, Bhopal.1995
(14)1996 …Contemporary Indian Painting, Bombay Art Society, Bombay.
(15) 1997…Major Trends in Indian Art, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi.
(16) 1999 …Retrospective Exhibitions, Jehangir Art Gallery, Cymroza
Art Gallery (Bombay).
(17) 2000 …Retrospective Exhibitions, Natarani Theatre, Ahmedabad
& Welcome Hotel, Baroda.
(18) 2002 …Allahabad Museum, Allahabad. Exhibitions-Auctions of
OSIAN'S, Mumbai, curated by Shri Neville Tuli
(19) 2001, February… India: The Passionate Detachment
(20) 2002, July … India in Making, 1757-1950
(21) 2002, November… Masterpieces and Museum Quality
Indian Modern and Contemporary Paintings.
(22) 2005, February… Masterpieces and Museum Quality Indian Modern
and Contemporary Paintings.
(23) 2004 …Art for Vision (For Shankara Netralaya) LKA, New Delhi.
(24) 2006… Parimini Shakla, Fifty years of Ratan Parimoo's Paintings
(1956-2006), Baroda, Delhi.
(25) 2008… Parimoo’s Chaurapanchashika: Iconography of A Nayika,
Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai.
(26) 2009 Parimoo’s Chaurapanchashika: Iconography of A Nayika,
Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
(27) 2010-11… Ratan Parimoo’s Early Phase, (1956-1960), Sponsored by
Marvel Gallery, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Mumbai.
(28) 2018… CONCOURSE, 9th Annual Contemporary Art Show Exhibition of
Kashmiri Muslim and Pandit Artists Srinagar (Kashmir)
He has also passed on his knowledge, expertise and
skills to so many young and upcoming artists through various Art Camps that he
attended within the country.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
For him, no award is greater than,’
love, respect and regard’ that he
received all along his life from students, art lovers and artist community
within his country. When he thinks about it, he feels satisfied and happy.
However, as a recognition to his outstanding
talent, many awards and honours have been conferred upon Ratan Parimoo. Some
amongst these can be listed as under:-
(1)
Cultural Scholarship for
Painting, Govt. of India 1957-59.
(2)
Commonwealth Scholarship
to study in London for the years 1960-63.
(3)
First prize in Painting,
Annual Exhibition, J & K. Cultural Academy in 1966
(4)
Rockefeller 3rd Grant to study and travel to
USA in 1974
(5)
Jawaharlal Nehru
Fellowship 1991-1993.
(6)
2000 Gaurav Puraskar,
Gujarat State Lalit Kala Akademi.
(7)
2016 Raja Ravi Varma
Chitrakar Sanman award, Megh Mandal Sansthan Mumbai.
(8)
2019 ‘Rabindranath Tagore Birth Centenary Medal’
by Asiatic Society in Kolkata at 235th Annual Meet for
Contribution to Human Culture (2018).
He has also been invited as Guest Speaker in seminars within and outside the country. As Guest Speaker or on merit scholarship, he has visited Russia, Australia, France Germany, USA, UK and many other countries. His lectures in various seminars were reproduced in the shape of booklets and distributed to libraries and art institutions within the country and abroad. Specific mention needs to be made of his below lecture series:--
(1) 1980 – Radhakamal
Mukherji Memorial Lecture, U.P. State Lalit Kala Akademi, Lucknow.
(2) 1983 – UGC National
Lectures at Chandigarh, Santiniketan & Madurai.
(3) 1989 – Hindi Sahitya Parishad,
Ahmedabad.
(4) 1990 – Somashekhar
Memorial Lecture, Dept. of Archaeology, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.
(5) 1999 – Abanindranath
Memorial Lecture, Calcutta.
(6) 2005 – Raja Ravi Varma
Death Centenary Lecture, Cochin.
Parimoo has also been associated with many
committees and institutions set up by government for promotion of art in the country.
Some important assignment that he discharged with honesty, dedication and
transparency could be listed as under:-
(1)
1981-1984 – Member, Executive Board, Lalit Kala Akademi,
Delhi.
(2)
1982 – Member, UGC Panel Art History / Museology.
(3)
1982-1988 – Executive Secretary, Indian Association
of Art Historians.
(4)
1985 – Member, UGC Pay Scale Revision
committee.
(5)
1987 – Member, Central Advisory Board of
Museums, Govt. of India.
(6)
1993-1995 – Member, History of Science Panel,
Indian National Science Akademi, New Delhi.
(7)
1994-1997 – Member, UGC Panel for Art History / Fine
Arts.
(8)
1998-2000 – Art Purchase Committee, NGMA, Delhi.
(9)
2003-2005 – Programme Advisory Committee, NGMA, Mumbai.
(10)
2003-
2005 – Board of Studies, Jawahar Nehru University,
New Delhi. Board of Studies, National Council of Educational Research and
Teaching, New Delhi.
(11)
2011 – Authentication Committee appointed by
Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, to access the exhibition of 20 fake
paintings of Rabindranath Tagore held at College of Arts and Crafts, Kolkata.
(12)
2012-2014 – Member, Board of Studies, School of Art and
Aesthetics, JNU.
(13)
2014-2016 – Member, Acquisition Committee, NGMA, New
Delhi.
(14)
2015-2020 – Chief Advisor, Textbooks in Fine Arts for class XI and Class XII, National
Council of Educational Research and Training.
He was invited to lead the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai(LD) Museum in Ahmedabad (2007-2019) where he successfully reorganised the galleries of the LD Museum, the NC Mehta Collection and published three groundbreaking collection catalogues on Jain, Rajasthani, Pahari and Mughal paintings including the Kasturbha Lalbhai collection of Indian drawings originally from the world famous Tagore family collection. They are well acclaimed examples of Catalogue Raisonne on Indian Miniature Paintings.
THE BARODA GROUP
Also
known as the Baroda Group of Artists, the Baroda School is an artist group
founded in 1956 by NS Bendre, comprising artists associated with the Faculty of
Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda (now Vadodara). The School marked a move away
from the Revivalist inclinations of groups such as the Bengal School as well as
the academic realism practised by European schools. Formation of Baroda Group
of Artists was a historically significant moment for Modern Art in India. Prof N
S Bendre played pivotal role in bringing a core group of artists together in
1956 for what came to be known as Baroda Group or Baroda School. Ratan Parimoo
happens to be the founder member of the Baroda
Group .It was in the Bombay exhibition of this Group that Ratan Parimoo exhibited his well known
painting ‘Habba Kadal’.About the
formation of Baroda Art Group in 1956, Ratan Parimoo writes this :-
“The first Baroda Group of Artists formed
in 1956, had a great emotional significance for my career as a young painter.It
was some sort of a spontaneous
announcement by the group to declare to the Modern Indian art movement ,’here
we come ‘. Our meetings with Prof N S
Bendre quite often at his university flat, were occasions for discussionon on
art including many inquisitive questions our young minds were puzzled about. When
the first exhibition of this group was held on 21st April , 1956, at the small gallery of Artists Aid
Centre ,Rampart Row , only a small two page folder had been circulated about 13
painters and their 31 paintings .The pocket book size folder listed the
following names :-
(1)
G R Santosh
(2)
Ratan Parimoo
(3)
K G Subramanyan
(4)
Prabha Dongre
(5)
Kumud Patel
(6)
Triloke Kaul
(7)
Shanti Dave
(8)
Vinay Trivedi
(9)
N S Bendre
(10) Balakrishna
(11) Jyoti Bhatt
(12) Prafful
Dave
(13) Ramesh
Pandya
It had briefest introduction, “ You have
been meetings us individually in different exhibition all over the country .We,
who stay and work in Baroda now, present herewith our recent works’.The
exhibition was inaugurated by the then
famous novelist and campaigner for Modern Art, Mulk Raj Anand. The second
exhibition was much larger, held in the main hall of Jahangir Art Gallery
during April 1957, and inaugurated by *Walter Langhammer. The Times of India review of the first
Exhibition in Bombay had hailed Prof. Bendre as the ‘moving spirit’ behind the
serious though loosely termed Baroda Group. The distinguished critic Sham Lal
(later editor Times of India) made his famous remark about our Bombay
exhibition that some artists are ‘Bacon-ian, Braqie-ish, Gris-ly and merely Klee-ver
’. The third
exhibition held at the Alliance Franchise during October 1958 was inaugurated
by the then Director of USIS. The number of artists rose to 20 with inclusion
of Vinod Shah, Haku Shah, Farookh Contractor, Bhupendra Desai and the two women
artists, Kishori Kaul and Padmini Manerikar. Exhibitions were also organised at
Ahmedabad in 1957 and in 1960 at Srinagar, J&K Akademi and at Bhavnagar.
The fourth exhibition held at the Jehangir Art Gallery during 1959 comprised of
the works of 29 artists with inclusion of Narendra Amin and Naina Dalal. The
fifth exhibition was held in Jan 1961 at Roopa Art Gallery, Taj Mahal Hotel
with inclusion of Jayant Parikh and Jeram Patel. ”
LOVE FOR KASHMIR
“For me, painting Kashmir more
specifically its culture and life has always been satisfying. It fills the
heart with a different charm and satisfaction”
While
being felicitated by the J&K Academy of Art Culture and Languages, he said
this:-
“No man forgets his roots; my paintings like
Maej Kashir, Kashmiri Dancers, Habba Kadal, Fish Selling Women, Dal Lake,
Kashmiri Family and Tongas reflect my inner emotions and nostalgia.”
Born and
brought up in Habba Kadal locality of Srinagar city, Ratan Parimoo has always
remained connected with his roots. In 2022, along with Gauri Parimoo Krishnan,
his daughter, he visited Kashmir and went to Habba Kadal locality to see his
old family house on the banks of River Jhelum. He also visited Kheer Bhawani Temple,
Tulamula and Martand Sun Temple during this visit. After this visit, he read a
scholarly paper, “Revisiting the Martand
Sun Temple of Kashmir“at the 6th Dr Devangana Desai Endowment
Lecture Series. This paper was published in research journal ‘Neelamatam’ (Vol 14, Issue No 02, April-June 2022) published
from New Delhi. He has drawn innumerable nostalgic sketches portraying life in
Kashmir as he saw it during his childhood and youth. Sketches like , “A
Kashmiri Balloon Seller“, “ The Fish selling Women “, Lunch Time in A Kashmiri
Family “ , “ Kashmiri Women Husking Paddy “, “ Maar Canal ”, “Dal Lake “,”My
Mohalla ( Purshyar Ghat )”,”Kashmiri Women At River Bank”and many more became
quite popular. A popular book on art written by Dr Parimoo bears Badam-wadi or
Badam-Waari as its title. Badam-wari is the name of the famous almond garden
near Hari Parbat in Srinagar city.This garden is a part of Kashmiri culture and
life .The spring festival (with full blooming almond trees) attracts Kashmiris
of all shades to this garden.
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As
sensitive human being, he was privy to suffering and sorrows of women in the
traditional Kashmiri society. These women
were engaged in service, sacrifice and implementation of ruthless selflessness.
They had to work from 6 a m till 11 p m. All these women cooked food, washed
utensils, washed clothes, did house cleaning and other allied domestic work
apart from maintaining family ties .They were the first to get up from sleep
and the last to sleep in their families .Even if they were unwell, they
followed this routine. A set of Pherans or Sarees, a sandal and a Dejhoor given
by parents was their material possession in the family. They ate last of all
and quite often there was little food left for them to eat. Their worry was to
provide for all except their own self. They remembered Lal Vaaks and lyrical
verses of Arinmal, Habba Khatoon and Rasool Mir. Tears trickled down their eyes
when they sang some Leela of Krishen Joo Razdan or Parmanand. These women
remembered everyone's birthday. They remembered the Shradha of every deceased
member of their family. None knew when they were born. The conjugal bliss was
unknown to them. For them, married life meant service, surrender, child bearing,
sacrifice, compromise and self-neglect. They had no time to think beyond these
things.Add to that, these hapless women faced perpetual hostility from their
mothers in law. This was a common story
of every women during those days .Remembering
his mother, Ratan Parimoo writes this:-
“As a kid, I have
heard my mother, the grandmother, Kakien or my father’s mother, reciting
“Indrakshi Namsa Deevi “every morning. I also remember as a child during the
late 1940s the highly emotional chants let out by elderly Kashmiri women
at Chakreshawer Temple, Hari Parbat “ Maejji Maejji “ and uttering ardent
prayers concerning troubles plaguing their families at that point in
time. I was named as Saeba. My mother was born as Kamla however she was named
as Soomavati in her in law’s house. Remembering mother is impossible without
bringing in the character of the elder mother (Kakien or my father’s mother)
with whom she remained entangled through her married life. Kakien would often
taunt Maej (my mother) for her parent’s family, what little they gave as dowry
and what training she was given as a young girl to face the responsibilities
after her marriage and assuming the role of a daughter in law. The heaps of
humiliation flung at her, of which I am a witness, still haunt me. But she
hardly complained, nor did it show on her beautiful face. It was in Baroda
that my wife Naina ( Naina Dalal , a well-known artist
) and I discovered that Maej ( mother ) had developed acute diabetes . Her legs
had become rickety and deformed and it was difficult for her to walk. She would
also get into what doctors called diabetic coma. On many occasions, I observed
that she was talking to herself in an incoherent manner. In the
monologues, she would often repeat the taunts hurled on her by Kakien,
something like, “That day you shouted
at me for my dull headedness. … You accused me of being slow. You abused my
parents, brothers and so forth.” Those days, the 1970s, acute
diabetes could be managed by insulin injections. Thus we arranged a nurse to
come in the morning and in the evening to administer insulin injections it was
our second opportunity to live with my parents at Baroda, but under
circumstances when both of them were sick.And once again father and mother
expressed their keenness to return to Srinagar and stay with my bother
Bhaijan. It was in 1978 that I received the news about Maej’s death.I reached
Srinagar to join the mourning as well as the post cremation rites. The lady
relatives gathered in our house were heard commenting that “Maej” had met with
a fortunate death. She died before her husband and had thus escaped the
humiliating status of widowhood. I could not help thinking ; perhaps a lucky
death for a woman who otherwise was unlucky for whole of her life
.She must not have been more than 60 years old .My current obsession nervously
makes me aware of my guilt feelings towards my mother ( Maej ). She died
so long ago and the thought pinches me so much that I hardly did anything for
her as a grown up son with a good career to boast."
Gauri Parimoo Krishnan, daughter of Ratan Parimoo, is a well known art historian and curator. She has authored more than 6 books on art and art history out of which two books cover works of Ratan Parimoo and Neena Dalal, her father and mother respectively. She has been honoured by Govt of Singapore for her role as curator of 'The Asian Civilizations Museum'. About influence of her parents, Gauri Parimoo Krishnan adds:
“My parents believe in creativity and they have never shied away from following their artistic calling and not be dictated by external forces. They are gentle but resolute, I guess I have followed in their footsteps somehow. “
“I remember having been told that the name of our bridge was after
Habba Khatoon, supposed to be the name of Yusuf Shah Chak’s queen. We may
geographically identify east and west banks of Vitasta River and upstream
(heri) and downstream (bona) localities.
Importantly, the white masjid (Agha Hamam Mosque) side in the photograph
uploaded by you is east side. Habba Kadal Bridge is located Soomayar yarbal (of
course, Kashmiri word for ghat).Coming from west side the broad steps of the
ghat were located on the right hand side of the bridge. The building on this
side on the main road housed a post office on the ground floor and first floor
was the office of what was perhaps called Yuvak Sabha. This spot became the
venue of significant events during the year 1948, soon after Pakistani Kabaili raid
a few months earlier. The climax of the invasion was when we in Srinagar had
prepared one ‘phutuj’ per person to run away as the barbaric invaders had
reached outskirts of our city according to my worried father’s instructions one
unfortunate winter morning. (I was eleven and half year old). Later, we heard
about the arrival of Indian army and air force, etc. In order to maintain the
spirit of courage and keep the panic under control, the Kashmiri Pandit Yuvak
Sabha office bearers became active and putting up loud-speakers on the first
floor veranda, in the manner of All India Radio, daily news was boldly
broad-cast every evening. Detailed information was given of how the invaders
have been pushed back including the decision of cease-fire etc. ordered by the
United Nations. I remember thousands of us, both older people and youngsters
would eagerly assemble, full of hope and relief. I was accompanied by my
brother Girdhari Lal two years older to me (whose son is the T.V. and theater
actor, Lalit Parimoo). What is important, strangely, most people did not
realize at that point in time, was how the communal harmony remained
undisturbed almost persistently. Many of the Pandit names you have listed began
their activism at that stage. I recall names like (as they were spoken) Krishna
Hokh, Tika Tapyul, etc. (subject to confirmation). Now with reference to ‘heri’
and ‘bona’, (upstream and downstream) localities, Ganpatyar, was the ‘heri’
side, almost the uppermost limit of Pandit population), nearer to the first bridge,
Amira Kadal. Ganpatyar was a sacred spot where was located the Ganesh icon
especially worshipped by most Pandits during the Ganesh Chaturthi to
Chaturdashi period. Habba Kadal, the 2nd bridge, was like the middle area, so
that the lower most limit was Raghunath Mandir Ghat, which was nearer to Fateh
Kadal (third bridge). The well-known Church Mission Society School was located
between Raghunath Mandir and Fateh Kadal, where I was a student between 1946
and 1950 and wherefrom I completed my matriculation. At that time, Master
Samsarchand Kaul (Geography) and Ishwar Kaul (Mathematics) were senior
teachers. I was their favourite who selected me ‘all round best boy’ in the
final year. The west side of Habba Kadal that is opposite side of the Agha
Hamam Masjid was located Purshayar Yarbal. My house was located in the nearest
lane, unofficially known as Parim Kocha. A cluster of more than half a dozen
houses were occupied by Parimoo families. (Later we, children, came to know
that there were Parimoo families in Rainawari also). Prominent among Purshayar
Parimoos was my father Dr Amarnath Parimoo, who became a popular doctor,
practicing at Habba Kadal between 1946 and 1965 and known by abbreviated name
Amba Parim. (In Kashmiri language, Amarnath is pronounced as Ambarnath that is
how my grandmother, Kakini, also addressed him). Muslim patients also had great
faith in him referring him as Ama Parim (Ama is a Muslim name). They claimed
that Amaparim has ‘shafa’ in his hands. A medical shop owner, Madhusudan, had
hired a first floor hall of a small building at the western edge of the Habba
Kadal bridge adjacent to Purshayar, which was used as Dr Amarnath Parimoo’s
clinic. Long queues of
patients were formed at the footpath below this clinic. His consultation fee was
a small amount. Some years later Gopinath Parimoo, from among our immediate
neighbours, also started a medicine shop nearby, to cater to the expanding
number of patients. He was not a qualified doctor. On the other hand he was
known to be close to some of the Muslim leaders of the National Conference.
(Shiekh Abdullah’s party). Here it may be mentioned that during those years,
besides active National Conference members, there were also active members of
Communist Party as well as RSS (Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh) cadre. As a
schoolboy those days, I have witnessed Muslim members of National Conference
physically beating Pandit men working for RSS, even outsides their own homes.
On one side of Purshayar Yarbal was located a temple. The Ghat of
this temple was filled with Pandits reciting Gayatri Mantra and performing ritual
bath. The sunrise took place from the opposite riverbank, i.e., east side, so
that everyone having a dip in the river would be facing this side. The children
also followed this practice. The prominent issue of Kashmir problem was a
burning issue among the adult Pandits, nick-named Bhatta – Gazette. Almost
every Pandit blamed Jawa Nohr (Jawaharlal Nehru) for his unpardonable blunder.
We had been told that Purshayar Yarbal was the most important Ghat after
Ganpatyar right upto Fateh Kadal. However, no particular Hindu festival was
ritually performed here. I remember, 10th and 12th day
after-death rituals were performed at the Ghat after my father’s death in 1980.
Purshayar was recognised Ghat for distribution of Government Ration Scheme,
i.e.Dhanya (rice-grain or Shali). Purshayar, Habba Kadal became the postal
address of my father and many other families in the vicinity of the Ghat and
the temple. A row of shops (baazar) was in the lane along the temple compound,
which included the famous Masala and Kiriyana shop of Prasad Kaul. Further down
the baazar was a butcher shop where the Pandits would invariably halt after
completing Puja at the temple. I was often assigned to buy mutton for my home
at this shop. Some of the adult men would continue reciting Sanskrit Shlokas
while the meat ordered by them was being cut by the butcher.From Habba Kadal,
during those days, many Pandit and Panditani devotees walked early in the
morning for as much as two hours to carry out the Parikrama (circumambulation)
of Hari Parbat. Even though the route was via Muslim residential areas, the
whole circuit was completed without any untoward incidents. My mother would
often quite confidently take the river route to go to her parent’s / brother’s
house, hiring a Shikara (Naav driven by a Muslim ‘haenz’, boatman) from
Purshayar to Zaina Kadal and walk towards Maharaj Ganj. Occasionally when I accompanied
her, I remember the Boatwala would stop the Naav near the ‘Kaeli hoond’, if we
wish to offer Puja at the spot marked by Sindoor on the river side wall of
Khanakah Maula (Shahamadan) located on east side of Vitasta between Fateh Kadal
and Zaina Kadal. Going to Zaina Kadal was ‘bon vasun’ (descending) and
returning to Habba Kadal was‘hyor khasun’ (ascending). So was going toward
Ganpatyar and Amira Kadal. Most government offices were located on this side of
Srinagar city. So, attending office was ascending to the office. Within
Purshayar area were also located the homes of Dinanath Bhan ,Senior Journalist
of Indian Express, father of Pankaj Bhan, editor MIRAAS, Chaman Lal Sapru
(scholar of Hindi literature), and Motilal Kaul. The latter became prestigeous
professor of English literature at Chandigarh. Due to his dark complexion, he
was known by the nickname, ‘Mooti negative’. The hinterland of Purshyar area
was known as Potbaazar, where lived my relative Trilokinath Vaishnavi, who
wrote dramas and songs, now an obscure figure. (father of Shekhar Vaishnavi of
Delhi). Trilokinath was given a chance to sing his songs during the interval
period at the dramas staged at Sheetalnath. On the opposite side of Habba
Kadal, that is the Masjid side, a lane alongside it was called Barbuzya Kocha.
If one walked and passed some distance, one would locate the house of Pushkar
Bhan, the playwnight of Machama and Zoona Dab. Kishori Kaul’s (the Kashmiri
woman artist) home was a few houses before Ganpatyar (upstream from Habba
Kadal).
As kids of C.M.S. School, Fateh Kadal, we would cross the Habba Kadal
bridge and walk via Sathoo Barbar Shah, pass by Sheetalnath, then along S.P.
College campus reach the play grounds of Hedow Memorial School, where sports
and games tournaments were held several times during a year for all the C.M.S.
Schools of the Valley. I took the same route to attend 1st year
classes at S.P. College during 1950-51, where I met Shashishekhar Toshakhani.
(His father was professor of Philosophy). During those days, the most exciting
news was recitation of Madhu Shala by Harivansh Rai Bacchan at a private house
along the Sathoo road. And of course the many dramatic performances being held
at Sheetalnath, were very stimulating. It was one of the centres of social and
cultural awakening among the members of the Pandit community during those days.
The earlier mentioned Soomayar Ghat situated diagonally opposite
Purshayar (across Vitasta) and located on the east side of the bridge, was the
venue of the annual Soomavati Amavasya festival, when married Pandit women
would take ritual bath in the Vitasta river, for which a huge Shamiyana was set
up under the east side of the bridge to provide privacy. Diametrically opposite
this Ghat on the west side of the river, was a Ghat used by Muslims and nearby
stood a Masjid, called Rishi Saebun. It was constructed in the traditional
design of wooden architecture similar to the roofs of Shahamadan. Again, on our
side of Habba Kadal but upstream were the houses of social reformer and
musician Pandit Ved Lal Dhar Vakil (nickname Veda Vakil, whose son, Vish Pran
Dhar was my schoolmate) and Motilal Kemu (theatre person). My elder brother
Girdharilal and I were childhood buddies of Motilal Kemu. Nearer to Kani Kadal
was the house of Triloke Kaul (painter). As a social reformer, I presume Ved
Lal Dhar Vakil was also associated with the idea of Kahmiri Pandit ladies adjusting
to Indian Saree as the routine dress replacing the traditional Kashmiri Pheran
and Taranga.This movement was started by Pandit Kashyap Bandhu, a social reformer.
In early 1948, when the Yagnyopavit ceremony of we three brothers was arranged
during the peak season of emergency marraiges of girls (simultaneously with the
Kabaili raid), in an old photograph, my mother is clad in Saree whereas my
grandmother and other elderly ladies are dressed in the traditional Pheran and
Taranga.
Going back from Purshyar side to the east side, i.e. the white Masjid side of Habba Kadal, and walking on way downstream towards Fateh Kadal, one passed by Chinkral Mohalla, where existed the house of the painter, Ghulam Rasool Santosh. Further down was Bana Mohalla, a dense residential area of Pandit families. My relative Upendra Ambardar’s ancestral home was there. My father Dr Amarnath Parimoo’s mother’s (my grandmother Siddha Lakshmi) parental home was also in this locality. She used to worship the photograph of her father, Swami Kailas Kaul, who was known as an accomplished Yogi.Strangely, my father was usually reticent about him. I am for the first time mentioning this saintly name, but we never met his close relatives or a Shishya/ follower. Perhaps this announcement may attract some one’s attention.”
THE ART OF RATAN PARIMOO
Known as a post-World War II art movement, Abstract Expressionism was the first exclusively American genre of painting to reach worldwide influence. Forming in the 1940s in New York City, Abstract Expressionism artists helped turn the city into the new Western centre of the art world, which effectively went on to replace Paris.
Abstract Expressionism was characteristically
denoted by the great dedication to self-expression that artists communicated
via their paintings. Emotions were evoked through gestural strokes and marks
that were spontaneous and colorful in nature. These experimental techniques led
Abstract Expressionism artists towards the development of action painting and
colour field painting, as great areas of bright and pure colours were
customarily used. Having been exposed to the work
of artists like Wassily Kandinsky, Jackson Pollack, Mark
Rothko, Willhelm De Kooning, Lee Krasner, Norman Lewis and Joan
Mitchell , Ratan Parimoo was certainly influenced by the new wave in art known as Abstract Expressionism ; Abstract Expressionism
; he, however found wide scope in this new genre for
expressing native subjects .
And looking at the history of Modern Art in our country, one can
safely put Ratan Parimoo amongst the pioneers of Abstract Expressionism in India.
A careful look at Ratan Parimoo’s work reveals the influence of Willem De Kooning (1904-1997), the well-known Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. The presence of geometric or biomorphic shapes and strong colours that give vent to raw emotions remained hallmark of his abstract expressionism. One can safely say that Parimoo’s fingers were correctly positioned to feel the pulse of Modern Abstract Expressionism that he almost pioneered in India. This form he adopted at a time when most of his contemporaries were preoccupied with figurative art. The skill in him made something impossible in this field. And he is the only artist who retained native sensibilities while dealing with form and colours .By mixing eloquent action painting procedures with his meticulous goal of perfection, Parimoo’s artworks were known for their superb originality and great intensity of feelings. As artist, Parimoo has managed to stitch on his canvas the contemporary aesthetic ideas with the rich Indian artistic heritage. For him, human form is not a priority to work upon .He worked on fusing key elements of Cubism, Surrealism, and Expressionism within his works.
Sometime one feels that Parimoo’s
work fully embodies the definition of Action Painting, as it appears to be a
result of the encounter that occurred between himself and his materials. He is
not bothered about marketing his work or even exhibiting it when he paints
.That makes his work truthful, raw and honest.That is the reason for his
paintings like, “The Vegetable Vendor “,”Kashmiri Tonga “,Monkeys “,”Donkeys returning Home”, “ Donkeys on The Hill
“, “Habba Kadal “, “Kashmiri Folk Dance“, “Harni Mela “, Kashmiri Women Husking
Paddy “ and many more becoming popular and
well notices in the art circles .
Some prominent creations of Parimoo include-- Woman with Matka, oil on board (Exhibited, National Exhibition of Art, LKA, New Delhi); Habba Kadal, oil on board, 1957 (Exhibited, Baroda Group of Artists, Mumbai); Lotus Valley, digital print (original with Air India, oil on board); Baroda Station I, oil on board; Marriage Procession, oil on canvas; Baroda Station II, oil on canvas; Still life with Kashmiri objects, oil on canvas; Kashmiri Family, oil on canvas; Rice Fields, oil on canvas; Kingdom of Cards, oil on canvas; Dal Lake, oil on canvas; Baroda Station III, oil on canvas; Baroda Zoo, oil on canvas; Tongas, oil on board; Composition (Scarlet Pearls), oil, sand, encaustic on board; Composition, encaustic on canvas; Bio-morphic Forms, oil on canvas; Fear, Despair, Death (Fear: Dragon's Visit), oil on canvas; Self Portrait as Icarus Transformed, oil on canvas; Sea of Eyes, oil on canvas; Dromedary as Nemesis, oil on canvas; Dromedary as Nemesis, oil on canvas; Penumbra, oil on canvas; Road of Nirvana, oil on canvas; Water Buffaloes, oil on canvas; Dance of Death II, oil on canvas; Mahishasuramardini, oil on canvas; Encounter with Nothingness, oil on canvas.
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PARIMOO’S CHAURAPANCHASHIKA: ICONOGRAPHY OF A NAYIKA
In a group of paintings exhibited in 2008 at the Jahangir Art Gallery in Mumbai, Ratan Parimoo unveiled Aishwarya Rai, the beautiful actress in various thesmes and variations as Nayika in the Indian tradition. The theme of “Parimoo's Chaurapanchashika: Iconography of a Nayika”, represented Parimoo’s adaptation of Leonardo da Vinci's Monalisa to view Aishwarya Rai as the the archetypal female who could also be compared metaphorically with well-known or familiar female characters from both European Art History and Indian Art History. Thus there was the juxtaposition with the image of Venus, of Apsara, of Radha, and also the personages of the paintings of the famous painter of of Kerala, Raja Ravi Varma, such as his Saraswati and portrait of Maharani. In this group, there are paintings wherein the artist shows himself gazing at Aishwarya Rai painted as Mona Lisa or Nayika in variations. About this series that was seen by thousands of art connoisseurs, Ratan Parimoo says this:-
About Ratan Parimoo’s art, noted art critic Keshav
Malik writes this:-
“Parimoo’s images have sophisticated classical quality, rather than
naïve or primitive modes of stylization. They are hardly ever random, or
graffiti like sketches, their definitive drawn quality comparable to
calligraphic scribbles. Schemata, logically meant as a method and a result of
wanting to capture it all, an anti illusionistic strategy. One of the first
painting in this style was “Habba kadal, A View of My Childhood Locality (Mohalla)”,
which enabled the artist to transverse the space in imagination .A painting
such as “The Lotus Valley (1957) “, uses linearity, two dimensionality and
isometric views with gay abandon and has profusely textured surface.The use of
multiple perspective is functional, enabling the maping of the topography. Attempt
in representation of life, whether a topographical view or an interior space is
always with a sense of editing and addition.Writing his meomories of a Kashmiri
childhood, Parimoo says” Thus virtually I have walked, run, swam and rowed
through the topography drawn in the painting”.
This is what Gauri Parimoo
Krishnan writes in the research journal Neelamatam (Issue 03-Volume 14- July
–September 2023):-
For being truthful, honest and bold, he may have been sidelined by the establishment. One fails to understand what more qualification and contribution is required to earn a Padma award which remains long overdue to him. Let me conclude this write-up with some lines from a poem of Nikola Vaptsarov , the well known poet from Bulgaria :-
‘History,
will you mention us
in your faded scroll?’
For the hardship and affliction
we do not seek rewards,
nor do we want our pictures
in the calendar of years.
Just
tell our story simply
to those we shall not see,
Tell those who will replace us –
We fought courageously.
(Avtar Mota)
FOOTNOTE
Walter Langhammer, born in 1905 in the Austrian city of Graz, is considered one of the founding fathers of the most famous of India’s schools of modern oil painting, the “Bombay Progressives.” Founded after the partition of India in 1947, this group of young Indian artists had sought out Langhammer’s tutelage and drawn inspiration from the traditions of European oil painting to establish an independent artistic identity.When Langhammer fled for Bombay (known today as Mumbai) after the National Socialist annexation of Austria in 1938, he was already well-established as an artist. Among his teachers at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts had been Ferdinand Andri, Hans Tichy, and Josef Jungwirth. Unlike his wife Kathe Urbach, Langhammer was not Jewish, but his political leanings, which occasionally found expression in the form of caricatures, were decidedly anti-Nazi. An Indian former student of Langhammers in Vienna, Shirin Vimadala, urged the couple to move to India and convinced the publisher of the Times of India to offer Langhammer a job as the paper’s first art director.. The Langhammers built a studio in their apartment and accommodated young Indian artists who sought a place to work. On Sundays, Walter and Kathe hosted a salon for artists and intellectuals in their home. Together with Rudolf von Leyden and Emmanuel Schlesinger, Langhammer helped introduce a generation of artists to an aesthetic that was fundamentally different from that of the Royal Academy of Art, which controlled art education in Indian schools. The salons discussed the work of Picasso and other modern European artists. Sayed Haider Raza, Langhammer’s protégé and a key figure among the Progressives, recalled how Langhammer critiqued his work and introduced him to the work of European artists like Raphael, El Greco, Monet, and Cézanne as well as Persian and Indian Rajput miniature painting. Raza credited Langhammer with helping him develop an awareness of form through the analysis of paintings. “You have to practically dissect the paintings,” Raza recalled Langhammer saying. “You must be able to say exactly what differentiates a Matisse from a Picasso or a Monet from a Cézanne.”By sharing his own artistic training as well as his relative wealth, Langhammer nurtured the young artists that would go on to form the Progressive Artists Group. He also helped his students make connections with European émigré intellectuals, industrialists, and physicians who became early patrons or champions of the Progressives, including the Times of India art critic Rudolf von Leyden. Sayed Haider Raza speaks fondly of Langhammer in his autobiography. Following his patronage Raza became close to Langhammer and was given his studio.’ You can use my studio during the day,’ said Langhammer who became his mentor. Raza would paint during the day and show him his works during evening. In 1947 Raza joined JJ School of Art and had enough money to pay for his education. When Raza left for Paris Langhammer gave him his overcoat and a pair of shoes. Langhammer was indeed more than a mentor, a veritable Samaritan to the Progressives. As his health declined, Walter returned with Käthe to Europe in early 60s, where he died in 1977 at the age of 72.
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
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