Spanning Two Diverse Cultures And Continents
Earlier this year, i took a boat ride on the Ganga at Varanasi with photographer Hari Mahidhar. We were shooting boats helmed by khevats. As in life or allegory, the wheat takes the pilgrim of life across realms and regions in his craft. In his bhajan, 'Payoji meine Ramratan dhan payo', for instance, Sant Tulsidas compares the Sadhguru to the oarsman, or the khevatiya, who ferries his disciples in the boat called Truth across the samsara-ocean or bhavasagara. Sant Tulsidas left his mortal coil at the southern-most Assi Ghat in Varanasi, the later haunt of long-time foreign students, researchers and tourists. This was also where the Swiss artist, art historian and cultural ambassador between India and Switzerland, Alice Boner, lived from 1938 to 1978. Boner proved to be a formidable cultural guide, or a cicerone, in her own became a confluence, a congenial meeting point and a platform for visiting artists, musicians andsavants. Nor was it artists alone who were drawn to Boner's hospitality. On December 28,1937, after her lecture at the Faculty of Psychology at the Benares Hindu University, Boner managed to lure the renowned Swiss psychologist Carl G Jung to her home for a dinner and "an unforgettable evening". Today, her house serves as the Alice Boner Institute supported by the Swiss Arts Council. The institute and library are primarily devoted to research in Indian arts; it also supports peripatetic artists, performers and philosophers engaged in the deepening ties and expansion of cultural links between the two countries much as Boner did in her lifetime. two diverse cultures and continents with her truly multi-faceted interests provided Boner with a rare insight. She contributed significantly to making India's culture known abroad: with Uway Shankar and his troupe, she played a key role in sparking the renaissance of Indian dance with a worldwide appeal. Through her artwork and her scholarly publications and collaborative projects with various artists and thinkers, she added greatly to the sensitisation and understanding of Indian art throughout the world. In her very first stay in Varanasi in February 1930, for instance, Boner observed that everything in this 'City of Light' on the Holy Ganga was determined by religion; and that included even the slightest act of daily life: "If you want to eradicate religion here you are cutting daily life in this numinous spirituadimension, she began to experience joy a heightened measure of spircomfort in her creative life. This provided her with a new understanding of the sacred arts tradition of India: "Sacred art doeexistfor itself but exists to reveal One Transcendental Truth,” shev”The primary purpose of sacred inis not to give aesthetic enjoyment serve as focussing points for the spIn a similar vein, Boner confessed a series of paintings pertaininthe Indian ideas of cosmological coif creation, evolution and destrucwhich led to the notion of the Greatriptych or Trimurti.
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Vithal C Nadkarni views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: Vithal C Nadkarni and Speaking Tree,Times of India
Spanning Two Diverse Cultures And Continents
Earlier this year, i took a boat ride on the Ganga at Varanasi with photographer Hari Mahidhar. We were shooting boats helmed by khevats. As in life or allegory, the wheat takes the pilgrim of life across realms and regions in his craft. In his bhajan, 'Payoji meine Ramratan dhan payo', for instance, Sant Tulsidas compares the Sadhguru to the oarsman, or the khevatiya, who ferries his disciples in the boat called Truth across the samsara-ocean or bhavasagara. Sant Tulsidas left his mortal coil at the southern-most Assi Ghat in Varanasi, the later haunt of long-time foreign students, researchers and tourists. This was also where the Swiss artist, art historian and cultural ambassador between India and Switzerland, Alice Boner, lived from 1938 to 1978. Boner proved to be a formidable cultural guide, or a cicerone, in her own became a confluence, a congenial meeting point and a platform for visiting artists, musicians andsavants. Nor was it artists alone who were drawn to Boner's hospitality. On December 28,1937, after her lecture at the Faculty of Psychology at the Benares Hindu University, Boner managed to lure the renowned Swiss psychologist Carl G Jung to her home for a dinner and "an unforgettable evening". Today, her house serves as the Alice Boner Institute supported by the Swiss Arts Council. The institute and library are primarily devoted to research in Indian arts; it also supports peripatetic artists, performers and philosophers engaged in the deepening ties and expansion of cultural links between the two countries much as Boner did in her lifetime. two diverse cultures and continents with her truly multi-faceted interests provided Boner with a rare insight. She contributed significantly to making India's culture known abroad: with Uway Shankar and his troupe, she played a key role in sparking the renaissance of Indian dance with a worldwide appeal. Through her artwork and her scholarly publications and collaborative projects with various artists and thinkers, she added greatly to the sensitisation and understanding of Indian art throughout the world. In her very first stay in Varanasi in February 1930, for instance, Boner observed that everything in this 'City of Light' on the Holy Ganga was determined by religion; and that included even the slightest act of daily life: "If you want to eradicate religion here you are cutting daily life in this numinous spirituadimension, she began to experience joy a heightened measure of spircomfort in her creative life. This provided her with a new understanding of the sacred arts tradition of India: "Sacred art doeexistfor itself but exists to reveal One Transcendental Truth,” shev”The primary purpose of sacred inis not to give aesthetic enjoyment serve as focussing points for the spIn a similar vein, Boner confessed a series of paintings pertaininthe Indian ideas of cosmological coif creation, evolution and destrucwhich led to the notion of the Greatriptych or Trimurti.
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Vithal C Nadkarni views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: Vithal C Nadkarni and Speaking Tree,Times of India