Tyaag

Acrylic on Canvas

165H x 84W cm

2022

This painting is inspired by two worlds in ancient India that existed about 2000 years ago - the first being that of high civilisations and the second being the world of forest / mountain dwelling hermits and ascetics. It’s a theme that recurs in Rabindranath Tagore’s works, including my last weeks post on his ‘Religion of the Forest’. The yellow robed holy man in the foreground has long ago renounced the household for the unity of the jungle and has reached his enlightened state, as symbolises by the blooming lotus flower and golden paint glaze I applied over opaque paint layers. The dark forest behind his left shoulder is his world. The woman in her sari is of a more urban life, with earthenware pots at the sage’s feet as symbols of domesticity. Devdutt Pattanaik’s ‘My Gita’ gives a neat summary of this theme in its introductory chapter:

“Two thousand years ago, South Asia was torn between two extremes. On one side were kings who established great empires, such as those of the Nandas, Mauryas, Sungas, Kanvas, Satavahanas, Kushans and Guptas, which heralded great prosperity but also involved great violence. On the other side were hermits (shramanas) such as the Jains, the Ajivikas and the Buddhists, who spoke of the household as the place of suffering and sought solace in the solitude offered by monasteries
(viharas). More and more people, including kings, were choosing the hermit’s way of life over marriage, family vocation and family responsibilities, causing great alarm. Chandragupta Maurya embraced Jainism, His grandson, Ashoka, embraced Buddhism.”

All this makes me think of humanity’s tension between the sedentary and the nomadic, and what our world of today and tomorrow looks like when viewed from this perspective.