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The divine messenger (Agnipurusha) rises from the sacrificial fire to bear vessel of celestial food by Nadim, sub-Imperial Mughal, c. 1597- 1605, courtesy Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. seems to effect is the emphasis on devising believable imagery, both in figuration and in the mise-en-scene. In that sense it is an attempt to physicalise the narrative or bring it into the realm of the ‘real’. (Did the retelling of the narrative in Persian influence this direction?) The eclectic naturalism that was evolved, refined Rama and Sita in the forest, sub-Imperial Mughal, c. 1600, courtesy the National Museum, New Delhi. Reading Visuals – Gulammohammed Sheikh and adopted at the atelier as an imperial lingua franca to illustrate historical chronicles such as the Akbarnama (probably a prime catalyst), the mythical tale of Hamza, and fables such as the Anwar-i- Suhayli, a Persian version of the Panchatantra, actualised this desire for materialising the lived. The story of the life of Akbar came to be depicted as an eyewitness account, conveying the message of his might in the detailed portrayals of battles he fought and won. The oral tales of Hamza, bringing to life the adventures of an Arab hero portrayed in a recognisable Indian environment, tangentially invoked the exploits of Akbar. The fables brought animals to life. However, to apply such a visualisation to a non-Islamic ‘religious’ narrative such as the Ramayana (or the Mahabharata, the Yogavashishtha etc.) brings in complex dimensions and challenges: the contentious question is whether their naturalistic representation would pave the way for historicising a mythical narrative. While the naturalistic articulation of human characters and the setting up of scenes of action in recognisable terrains brought about a change in the mode of viewing, it does not arguably seem to have effected a fundamental change in the basic content of the 9
10 ArtConnect: The IFA Magazine, Volume 6, Number 1 Emergence of the Agnipurusha from the Pyre, designed by Basawan, coloured by Husayn Naqqash, c. 1589, Mughal, courtesy the Maharaja Sawai Mansingh II Museum, Jaipur. narrative. This remains a tentative observation based upon limited accessibility and reading of the image and text of imperial manuscripts. Yet there are identifiable changes in the nature of the narrative caused by its mode of representation. Most prominent of these mutations is the exclusion of continuous narration, which was a clear departure from the practice of preceding Indian traditions and was surely prompted by the invention of an indigenous naturalism. Other changes discussed below also include a change of format—vertical in place of horizontal, hence a revised vantage. New Narrative Strategy Continuous narration was devised as a narrative strategy to inject temporality into the medium of painting. Used extensively in both pre- and post- Mughal visualisations, it involved a series of animated portrayals of the protagonist in successive movements played out against the relatively static presence of the other figures. The sequence of events woven as an integral element of pictorialisation and elaborated through a repetitive figuration expands the pictorial space to encourage the reading of the narrative in sequential time. In the portrayal of the banished Rama being told of his father’s death in the Mewar Ramayana, “the four brothers and Sita are shown seven times (or rather six in the case of Sita and Lakshmana) as they first meet each other, and then the action proceeds in an anticlockwise direction chronicling their reactions…, their trip down to the river to perform the required funeral rites, and their return to the hut where
Page 2 and 3: Contents EDITORIAL 3 READING VISUAL
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Wayang Kulit: Where Ravana Dances i
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Wayang Kulit - Eddin Khoo the Javan
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I could explain what Malaysia is, c
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when a member of your family is suf
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closest to the audience is the most
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Wayang Kulit during the 1970s, 1980
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the aim was to ‘museumise’ this
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