A Book, and a Tanjore painting
Jerry Pinto's review of the book 'Smritichitre' by Lakshmibai Tilak (English translation by Shanta Gokhale) convinced me that i should buy it, and i did. Indeed a wonderful account of the people and the circustances in familiar places of Maharastra, the book covers the period from the last couple of decades of the 19th century, and the first three of the 20th century. Experience the author's angst as her spouse hastens steadily from one faith to another, and she ends up treading the same path.
In the same newspaper edition as the review, i got to read another fascinating account of one man's beloved collection of Tanjore paintings. "The gods and goddesses in the iconic paintings often have “stark staring eyes”. This is because, Singh suggests, in the Indian tradition of darshan, you do not just look at the deity but the deity looks back at you. The box frames are a three-dimensional representation of a shrine. The religious cannot be disconnected from the aesthetic in this way of experiencing art."
One of the images accompanying the article is of Kamadhenu.
Why have these two pieces of reading been bunched? Simply because, the author in the former mentions that her multi-faceted and talented husband Mr Tilak, (later Rev Narayan Waman Tilak)
drew "a picture of a cow flanked by the sun and the moon. A Sanskrit sloka was inscribed underneath. The body of the cow was covered from horns to tail with images of deities."
In the same newspaper edition as the review, i got to read another fascinating account of one man's beloved collection of Tanjore paintings. "The gods and goddesses in the iconic paintings often have “stark staring eyes”. This is because, Singh suggests, in the Indian tradition of darshan, you do not just look at the deity but the deity looks back at you. The box frames are a three-dimensional representation of a shrine. The religious cannot be disconnected from the aesthetic in this way of experiencing art."
One of the images accompanying the article is of Kamadhenu.
Why have these two pieces of reading been bunched? Simply because, the author in the former mentions that her multi-faceted and talented husband Mr Tilak, (later Rev Narayan Waman Tilak)
drew "a picture of a cow flanked by the sun and the moon. A Sanskrit sloka was inscribed underneath. The body of the cow was covered from horns to tail with images of deities."
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