Vāhana: A fantastical bond between mundane and divine entities
Ramesh Gorjala is known for his enthralling depictions of myths in an indigenous visual idiom, Kalamkari of Srikalahasti. He grew up watching Kalamkari artisans work in his vicinities and was exposed to the distinct cultural practice at a very young age. He received his formal training in the traditional art under the tutelage of his uncle, Theertham Balaji and later, went on to study Painting at College of Fine Arts, Hyderabad. After the completion of academic training in art, he not only perfected the nuances of Kalamkari art that he learnt from his uncle, but also embraced the modernist traits to create his personalized visual vocabulary without discounting the traditional value and the unique identity of the art form.
By employing both conformist and modernist techniques, Ramesh Gorjala has been exploiting the sensibilities of the native art form and transporting the very core of classical myths to the postmodern world. With a kind of manifestation of style and content, his art form evolves into an assertion of indigenous cultural identity catering to the inter-cultural viewership. The fresh portrayal of mythical characters, from a fragmented story and the new approach to the narrative, evoke a sense of mystery for the onlookers.
Through Kalamkari as a vehicle, Gorjala’s idea of transporting and re-introducing the episodes from both Classical and Popular myths does not limit to the act of ‘showing and seeing’ the imagined relation of human with celestial world but to re-present the significance of the bond between the mundane and the divine. The present body of artworks created by Gorjala center on the mysterious alliance between mundane and divine entities which often negotiate their incidence in the abundantly embellished visual spaces. The mundane entities are transposed into celestial beings bearing philosophical meanings and are relegated to hierarchy as Vāhanas to serve the supreme divine with a presumed heavenly allegiance.
The Sanskrit term Vāhana comes from vāha which denotes the acts of ‘carrying’ and ‘bearing’ and semantically, the term refers to deeper connotations that signify energy of the deity that it is associated with. Sometimes it is a mere iconographic representation symbolizing the divine attribute, often depicted in the form of an animal, bird or a mythical creature and most of the times, it is regarded and worshipped as a subordinate divine form.
In ancient Vedic literature, Vāhana is mentioned as a mount or vehicle that is mostly associated with Hindu deities. According the Indian mythological, religious and textual sources, the gods and goddesses of Hindu pantheon have their mounts, exemplifying the energy and characteristics of each deity. Several such depictions in the form of sculptures and paintings show these deities in association with their respective Vāhanas either riding or standing on them. Philosophically, these mounts may have various connotations but in most cases the iconography of the chief deities is identified with a specific type of Vāhana attributed to them. For example, Saptamatrikas (seven forms of mother goddess) are associated with the mounts dedicated to their male counterparts. For example, one of the matrika, Indrani rides on Airavata (White Elephant), the Vāhana of Lord Indra. Thus, whether these vehicles are directly related to the purpose of ‘carrying’ or not is unknown but certainly suggest the purposiveness of the semantics.
Gorjala consciously engages in reorienting the mythical characters by drawing a link between the stories he heard and the animals that are associated with the characters. At times these celestial animalia are interchangeably used as Vāhanas and as forms of incarnation assumed by the supreme God. For Gorjala, these forms are signifiers of enigmatic cosmic symbioses. He brings forth the ‘cause and effect’ and the evolution of cosmos through a legible visual textuality. For instance, his beautiful renderings such as anthropomorphic form of Narasimha, Matsya (fish) and Kurma (turtle) are envisioned both as incarnations of Lord Vishnu whereas another painting shows a phallic form of Lord Shiva surrounded by the tigers, both as significations of goddess Durga and her Vāhana. Sometimes, he deliberately combines anecdotes from classic puranas and local myths like Venkateshwara Mahatmyam. Thus, the oneness is achieved through the use of fragments of the stories.
Surpassing all his predecessors who continue to practice it in the traditional manner, Gorjala tried to reconfigure the schema of painting Kalamkari in acrylic colours on the canvas, tarpaulin and wood notwithstanding the conventional iconography. Unlike the traditional artists, who always placed figures in syntagmatic narrative panel, he does not confine himself to a solitary, enormous hero in his art pieces. Rather, he transgresses the conventional pictorial composition by incorporating the plethora of figures that signify the story essentially encapsulated by the contours of a larger iconic form of the protagonist as an epitome of universe and blending them with the prototype patterns and the typical ornamentation associated with traditional Kalamkari.
However, his iconic imagery certainly demonstrates a fine amalgamation of traditional drawing and the contemporary technique that he developed over a period of time.
Gorjala works with a sensitive and complex process, depicting his otherworldly interpretation of the subjects of Hindu myths through a typical symbolism and laborious procedure. What comes out of these recent images is the interplay of the beautiful art and the divine sublime. The bubbling visual spaces bear a perfect symbiosis of cosmic existence, encompassing with variety of figures in both votive and sensuous postures evidently barring the detachment between the divine and mundane terrains. The composite forms, often collide with overt embellishment, are not mere decorative forms since the artist’s careful selection necessitates an auspicious symbolism, a vehicle through which the divine is experienced. His use of the colour palette predominated by bright hues like gold, red and green transform his pictorial compositions into rich and vibrant spaces and other visual elements like checkerboard pattern, often toned down with pleasing textures, prop on to the surface evoking a certain type of antiquity with contemporary dynamism.
Anand Gadapa,
Hyderabad
