Categories: Rebecca Romani, THE BUZZ

THE BUZZ: An Epic Indian Summer. Now – Sept. 1st

2) Dipak Raga, Bikaner, India, 1695. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper. The San Diego Museum of Art; Edwin Binney 3rd Collection. 1990.791.

An Epic Indian Summer

By Rebecca Romani

July 13, 2018

As the summer continues, one of the most fascinating exhibits of the season brings the heat, the pageantry, and color of the epic stories of Ancient India. Presented in a beautifully laid out new show of more than 90 illustrated miniature manuscripts at the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) in Balboa Park, “Epic Tales From Ancient India” is enhanced by so many surround events that this could be your go-to art exhibit all summer long.

“It’s an amazing show,” says Anita Feldman, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Education with the SDMA. In fact, it may be one of the museum’s most magnificent this year.

According to Feldman, all the manuscripts in the show are the gift of one Edwin Binney, III, a well-known scholar of Islamic art and an avid collector who was a trustee of the SDMA. When Binney died in 1986, he left the museum with well over a thousand of the illustrated pages. The collection, says Feldman, is recognized as the best and most comprehensive outside India.

The  “Epic Tales” show, culled from miniatures fit for emperors and maharajahs, seems, curiously, a fitting nod to Binney, as well. Binney, the heir to the Crayola fortune, had an unerring eye for line and color as evidenced by the richly hued illustrations and the workmanship in the details.

The exhibition is the brainchild of Marika Sardar, the former associate curator of Southern Asian and Islamic art at the SDMA, who saw in the pages a detailed, visual retelling of some of India’s most important sagas, 450 years of devotion to the stories of the gods and goddesses of India.

Unique to this show says Feldman, is that the displayed collection is not hung with respect to era or region, as is the case with most exhibits of Indian illustrated manuscripts, but according to their place in the epic in question. “Often the pages would be taken out of their book and separated for market,” says Feldman. So, in a way, the show gives the pages back their original intent and fosters dialog between pages created in different eras and regions.

According to Feldman, this is a unique opportunity to see illuminated pages, some of which date back almost 500 years.“ They’re here in the show, says” Feldman “and then they go away, back into drawers to rest for nine years.”

The exhibit is laid out against deeply saturated colors complimentary to the illustrated works. Some of the walls have set-in Jali screens, lovely wooden filters of light that recreate a traditional architectural element from Mughal India. The lighting is lowered, says, Feldman, because the manuscripts themselves are sensitive to light, their colors subject to fading.

In the far back sits a unexpected arched pavilion, similar to what one sees in the illustrations, with comfortable cushions and places to sit. The whole setting is a calm, gorgeous backdrop to the pages that pop off the walls.

The illustrated pages range from the mid 1500’s into the 1800’s and across various regions, including Nepal. Each region is quite distinct, says Feldman, pointing to a brightly colored page with strong reds and yellows. Work from Rajasthan is easy to spot, for example, with its flat, easy to read presentation while the Mughal style, adapted by painters of the Mughal courts, includes finely drawn faces and a more linear perspective. Nepali work tends to be simpler, with the figures looking more like shadow puppets than people.

The Ramayana is here, of course, with delicate renderings of incredibly detailed animals, and the highs and lows of the story of a prince, Rama, sent into exile and his faithful wife, Sita, whom he fears has betrayed him when she is kidnapped by a lustful king. In one page from, Northern India, Sita and Rama wander the forest; while in another from Central India, an impressive array of animals, including fanciful bears, join Rama in his fight to rescue Sita.

Less familiar might be the Bhagavata Purana, a major religious text describing the life of Krishna. One of the earliest pieces in the collection, dating from about 1530, shows the birth of Krishna with simple, stylized faces. Almost 80 years later, you can see a more sophisticated rendering of details as Emperor Jahangir is pictured with his court, listening to a re-enactment of the story of Krishna and his many consorts.

If you look closely, says Feldman, you can see some of the basic painting techniques are the same-opaque watercolor applied in layers, with each layer burnished before the next layer is laid down.

One of the most fascinating glimpses into how these pages were created is the “pounces,” the outlines of the work to be colored in. According to Feldman, the “pounces” are drawings made with tiny holes along the line that allow powdered charcoal to recreate the image on the paper below. That way, says Feldman, several copies of the same work could be made.

The Ragamala miniatures are some of the more unique pieces in the collection. Each illustrated page represents a raga, or musical mode designed for a specific time of day during a specific season. Often focusing on love, the ragas are imagined as a family, the male figure the main elements, the female the minor, the lyrics often circling the painting. The designs are lighter- no thundering scenes of war here- instead lovers relax in the cool of the evening or carefully steal away after a night of love.

The exhibit also boasts some finely worked material from Persian literature and the “Shahnama,” or the Book of Kings, an epic poem written in the late 8th century, tracing fifty kingdoms of Iran. Its presence might be surprising, but from the 12th century to the end of the 19th, Persian (Farsi) was the language of prestige and much of the official life of the courts was conducted in Persian. Largely considered a language of refinement, Persian eventually crept into Indian letters. You can see the shift in the poetry on the miniatures, now written in Persian, and the later illustrations of the Indian epics as Indian painters became influenced by the Persian use of perspective.

One of the unexpected jewels of the display is the Mysore Manuscript, a rare example of how the illustrated pages might have originally been bound. Feldman points out that the book itself is incomplete, which might explain its more assembled state, and that the pages have yet to be gilded, the mark of a finished book.  Visitors get to digitally flip through the Mysore, to explore how the illustrated pages around them might have once been bound.

 

Other Elements

But the paintings are not the only draw of the show. Bailey Cain, Assistant Manager of Public Programs at the SDMA, has created a number of family friendly surround events and elements that enhance the exhibit and give it a depth and breadth that makes “Epic Tales” a show above.

Among them are the two videos on either side of the pavilion at the back of the exhibit. To the right is an excerpt from the wildly popular Indian TV series, “Ramayan” (1986) based on the Ramayana, which screened in over 55 countries. So beloved was it that millions of people would tune in on Sundays during the broadcast, leaving streets and workplaces empty.  On the left is an excerpt from cartoonist Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings The Blues.”  Paley’s work is a beautifully illustrated look at the Ramayana, filtered through Paley’s own experiences and set to the music of 1920’s Jazz singer, Annette Hanshaw.  It’s best seen after looking at the illustrated pages because you will clearly see where Paley gets her inspiration.  You can watch the rest of “Sita Sings the Blues” here.

But that’s not all. Cain and the SDMA have set up workshops to learn about Indian puppet making (August 18), Indian dance showcases, and lectures.  There is an activity almost every day of the week to go with the exhibit, from art-making activities to dance (Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays).

If you can, try not to miss the On The Steps Program scheduled for July 27.  According to Cain, the free Friday program will celebrate the exhibit with Bollywood-style dance performances, art-making activities, henna, and more.  After the outdoor programming, the pageantry continues indoors with a recently restored, full colorized version of one of the greatest Bollywood epics every released, “Mughal-e-Azam,” the story of a Mughal prince and his thwarted love for a beautiful court dancer.

Taken by the exhibit’s Ragamala paintings? Curious about Indian music, especially ragas? You can satisfy your curiosity with “The Music Room” by the great Indian director, Satyajit Ray. The film about a wealthy Indian landowner obsessed with music is just one of several screenings Cain has programmed for the SDMA’s free Screen on the Green program in August. Other films include the critically acclaimed “The Lunch Box” with Irrfan Khan and the dazzling “Paheli,” a Bollywood film about a lonely ghost who falls in love with a neglected bride.

“Epic Tales from Ancient India” runs through September 3rd, with a sumptuous dance concert September 1st. For more information and times and events please see SDMA.org.

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