Chitralakshana-musings on a centuries old art.

Disclaimer: The title has nothing to do with an ancient treatise on art by nagnajit or later treatises and neither has a connection to a recent book by Mulk Raj Anand. It has been given in the sense of its original meaning.

Art- in any form is to be experienced by the beholder and none other than the seer himself can help him do so. Innumerable art forms exist in variety and spread. It could be a cloistered one or a clichéd one. In this post I get down to a specific art form, "Tanjore painting". From my association with it for about 10 months I can very well rephrase it as "Tanjore work" rather than painting.

The art form is more than 500 years old though the oldest paintings that survive now are atmost 250 to 300 years old. It has mindboggling intricacies to it right from the process of board preparation till its completion. The process itself takes up space to be described and hence I am not doing it here.

The aesthetic part of the work is what attracted me more because there are people whom I found complain that the art form is a time-tested one and is far away from realism. There is big hue and cry now-a-days that Indian aesthetic aspect has declined and one can hardly find it among the masses. This is true because of various factors but I am reminded of ‘Kolams’ and rangolis in this context. An addition to this list can be Tanjore paintings(though costlier).

The proceeding of the work amazes the artist himself.Every next stage adds beauty to the work. Sticking of jaipur stones(on the sketched board) followed by creating embossing effects render the painting beautiful. Later comes the gold foil work(22 carat ones). You feel like seeing your painting now and then. The last stage involves colouring. It uses colours that are pleasing to the eye and there are a few traditional combinations that often occur though not mandatory.

The themes were restricted to Hindu deities and puranas (which I think is the best possible thing because it adds a sanctity to the art and suites them well) though now it is being extended to many other themes. Some of the very common themes are Vennaithaazhi Krishna, Radha and Krishna, Krishna in various postures, Lord Shiva, Godess Parvati and Lakshmi and many others. I found a unique collection of Lord Shiva Tanjore paintings in a book published by the Koviloor mutt that deserves mention here. It has all forms of Shiva and his tiruvilayadals.

Image : This is my first tanjore painting(before framing..... and I used Chettinad frame for it)

It is popularly called as " Pendant Krishna"

My Ancestry-with a little history and Geography

Says Raja raja cholan in the Epic novel ponniyin selvan by Kalki “I am determined by what I achieve rather than what my ancestry is”.Still ,I was intrigued to know my roots when my father made a passing remark that we are the descendents of Appaya Dikshita,the famous 16^th century philosopher and religious Acharya.

History thrills me and the more I came to know about this Acharya and his era,the more I was interested in finding out the little piece of missing information.He lived from 1520 A.D to 1592 A.D and has 104 works ,spanning many a theme,to his credit.Some of his important works include Parimala,Shiva tatva viveka,Margabandhu stotram,Ratna traya pariksha,sivarkamani deepika.

By surfing through the web I hit upon a site that maintained the family tree of Appaya Dikshita and by way of correspondence with the owner of the site my search was over.I located my position in the family tree.I could do this effectively because the last in the link till then was Swami Shivananda(1887-1963)(of Divine Life Society fame) who I knew was my great grandfather’s brother.

Appaya Dikshita lived in and around Adayappalam,a village in Arcot district.His grandfather Vakshasthala Dikshita(1453A.D-1528A.D),who is my 15^th generation ancestor was one of the advisors for King Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara empire(who ruled from 1509 to 1529).There seems to have been an Andhra connection.Though the names of his ancestors have been lost in obscurity,through various sources we know now that they came down from further north(as also implied by the sect name vadadesa vadamal).They seem to have inhabited the region around present Nasik (Near Thryambakeshwar)around 700 years ago and might have migrated south due to muslim onslaught during that time.

Due to the descent of Appaya,the family tree has been recorded from his times continuously till now and this is a rare phenomenon found in few families.A look at the following chart will give an overview:

3 great personalities figure here.Apart from Appaya,his brother’s grandson Nilakanta Dikshita was a master poet and was the minister of Thirumalai Nayakar of Madurai(who ruled from 1623A.D to 1659A.D).He has authored many books like shivalilarnavam,Gangavatharanam ,Kalividambana and others.Swami Shivananda was a great yogi and his work in bringing awareness regarding the Advaita Vedanta is remarkable.

There is an interesting similarity between the surnames of dikshidars and dikshits and the region from where they come from(near Nasik).I take a leave here by seconding my mail-friend’s statement that more research is required to establish the missing link between these two families.

P.S: I am at the last link in the above chain