A Sangam of art, music and dance

Himanshu Srivastava & Rama Ranganathan

It was a Sangam indeed - a confluence. A coming together of three individuals - Dr. Himanshu Srivastava, painter, Bharatanatyam dancer and research scholar; Rama Sundar Ranganathan, Hindustani vocalist, painter, author and poet; and for the inaugural evening, Dr. S. Vasudevan, Bharatanatyam dancer, Carnatic musician, Sanskrit scholar, researcher and kolam artist. At the Open Palm Court in IHC Delhi, on a slightly chilly evening, Himanshu and Rama collaborated to put up an exhibition of their paintings, called Sangam.

Guru Vanashree Rao

The chief guests for the inaugural evening were Dr. Sachchidanand Joshi, member secretary, IGNCA, and dhrupad maestro Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar, and among the dignitaries present were Himanshu and Dr. Vasudevan's guru, the revered Guru Kamalini Dutt, Guru Vanashree Rao and Subhadra Desai. The very engaging presenter for the program was Anjana Rajan, dancer, theatre person and journalist.

Painting by Rama: Achal Swar

Paintings by Rama

Rama is a gandabandh disciple of Pt. Tejpal Singh of the Indore gharana (who is in the direct shishya parampara of Ustad Amir Khan) and also of the late Shanti Sharma. She is an All India Radio A grade artist. She trained in painting under Rameshwar Broota at the Triveni Kala Sangam, has been painting for many years, and her paintings in the exhibition were called Saptaswara. As Anjana Rajan said, "In the shastras, all the important elements of our dance and music are related to a deity, a colour, even to moods, and all these things she brings to her art."

Himanshu is a disciple of the late Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan and Rama Vaidyanathan, and he is currently being mentored by Guru Kamalini Dutt, who is 'a living symbol of someone who brings all the arts together in the essence of their beauty, in the essence of their philosophy', as Anjana said. Himanshu is trained in the Bengal school of art, and his doctoral thesis was on dance and its relation to Indian art. He has learnt Rajasthani phad painting under Pradeep Mukherjee and modern art under P. Hazari.

Paintings by Rama

Rama said this was a dream come true. "I've been watching Himanshu's work for a long time and he says he has also been watching mine. Subconsciously, we felt we connect and our work had some similar philosophies. Around March or April 2024, I contacted him and asked him what he thought of the idea of presenting our works together. He loved it... Finally, we decided to do this exhibition at this time, bringing music and dance together on canvas. The whole idea was Sangam. He is a North Indian by birth, trained in a South Indian art form. I am a South Indian by birth, trained in a North Indian music form. He speaks very good Tamil and I like to believe I speak very good Hindi. If you look at the work, there is a lovely mix of sagun and nirgun bhakti. His is totally bhakti with form - beautiful, the colours, the characters, the goddesses. Mine is more formless in that sense, even though you see birds and animals. I've referred to my bhakti taking inspiration from Mother Nature. Our work is thus ying and yang - the soul is one but in two different bodies. Hence the name Sangam, and why we would integrate our paintings and not even have our names under the paintings. We'll let you decide which one is whose - or not. That's the philosophy behind Sangam."

Guru Kamalini Dutt

Himanshu said, "To me, painting and dancing simply walked into my life as gifts. To give a simple example, these were two batteries - if one got discharged, the other one would charge it. They always made me feel connected, never exhausted, and in fact I have someone who is the living proof of my journey towards my art, my guru Kamalini Dutt - she has watched the battery going down and refilling. The idea of Sangam, as Rama has described, is also that we often forget to look into the various art around us influencing our lives. Are we picking it up and bringing cross-pollination into our works and our lives? This is what Sangam also represents - inter-disciplinary exchange and promoting the thought that more than one art form can co-exist together and successfully complement each other. To add to our evening, we had a long conversation and as Anjana ji said, there was no one better we could find than Dr. Vasudevan from Delhi here. He is the epitome of the triumvirate of art, dance and music, keeping all three together. Very few know he is a brilliant kolam artist. Every Navratra morning, we are bombarded with his art - you cannot stop him. These are brilliant works, a new thought. This is not regular kolam - these are thoughts to represent how he's feeling that day."

Anjana Rajan, dancer, theatre person and journalist

Anjana prefaced the performance with, "The pursuit of excellence has no end. That's why I think when we meet such people, they have called it Sangam, but Kamalini ji has used the world "satsang". We feel that satsang. Of all the times that we have experienced, we have dire need of that satsang today. Beyond the degrees, studies and works, it's about the inner path we take. How many of us are able to go into that stillness? The works of such people help us go within."

Dr. S Vasudevan, Anjana Rajan, Himanshu Srivastava and Rama Ranganathan

The three rivers of creativity - music, painting and dance - confluenced there at the sangam, losing their identity to merge with the other, so much so that the labels below the canvases did not bear the names of the painter and no one wall was dedicated to any one person or theme. There were two installations on the two sides of the entrance. On one side, with a red and white drape, there were two huge glass jars, one yellow and the other white, and fresh flowers. Beneath them lay ghunghroos and ankle rings. The other one had red and white drapes with flowers, a musical instrument and a manjira. The blown glass jars and diyas provided a sombre ambience.

Paintings by Rama

Rama's works had a unique theme - musical notes found their similes in birds sitting on an instrument. Every bird has a unique call, which was identified with a note, like the pancham swar was that of a koel or cuckoo. Three birds on a tanpura were teen saptak, representing three octaves, and five of them in conversation with each other or in a samvaad. The first note or shadaj was associated with Ganesha and the call of a peacock. The sixth, dhaivat, is associated with the neighing of horses and the seventh note, nishad, is associated with the trumpeting of elephants. Raag Yaman was a bird with a slender beak. A galloping horse on a piano, a running ox and a stork's fluffed up plumage on a bansuri depicted the various ragas, swaras and saptaks. It was an expressive series showing that the artist finds her music in nature through birds and animals and vice versa, and displayed her love and dedication towards both.

Himanshu on the other hand, tries to express complexities through both his mediums. In the Radha-Krishna series, he used a contemporary, minimalistic style. The background was all white, with a raised portion in white which showed the river Yamuna. In one painting, Krishna lies alone, holding his pitambar in wait. In the other, Radha and Krishna are separated by the river, though it narrows when between them. Krishna sits on a green patch and Radha wears a golden sari. The ornaments are Radha's nathini and Krishna's peacock feather. The Andal series were miniatures depicting instances from Andal's life. The detailing and the mood were very attractive. I literally fell for these holy paintings. The next series were Shiva-Shakti and Ardhanareeshwar, which have been the product of deep study and meditative observation. The paintings were in different sizes, some life size, and the detailing in them was breathtaking. In fact, the visages of both Shiva and Shakti were calm, with a godly smile. Himanshu's paintings showed firstly that he is very hardworking and honest and his thought process shown in the paintings goes very deep.

Dr. S Vasudevan performing before painting of Chandy by Himanshu

 

Dr. S Vasudevan performing before painting of Chandy by Himanshu

The experience was enhanced by a brief performance by Dr S. Vasudevan. He performed on the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra by Nayak Baiju. I am not well-versed with the Shiva Shakti tantra but I will try my best to decipher the performance. Vasudevan started by reclining in front of the life-size orange and red-hued painting of Mahishasur Mardini, who is riding on a man-like asura who has the head of a bull. He was dressed in a white and red aharyam, and depicted the kundalini waking and rising as she shields her eyes from the light. She arises, brushes her hair. 'Rasovye rasvardidni' - she is the source of all rasa, the one that leads to the increment of all rasa. As she rises and moves with a swaying gait, she leads to the process of creation. Vasudevan, totally possessed by the vision of the kundalini rising, depicted the sway in her body as all creation - animals, birds, man - are created with her at the core of it, brahmand sthita. The snakes emerge from within and begin to rise from the mooladhar chakra to the sahasrara. The union of sopaan and apaan is pran, the life in all living beings and the naad in all life. The various string instruments were depicted. The lotuses rise and the devi dances on as the tandava and lasya elements meet. He came back to where he had started from, the image of Mahishasur Mardini. The hand gesture for the union was made and from nothingness, everything arises, coming from within her. His abhinaya and body language oozed his devotion to the supreme mother.

Later, I spoke to both Himanshu and Vasudevan, the two dancers whom I have watched and admired for years.

HIMANSHU SRIVASTAVA

 
How do you manage to give time to both art and Bharatanatyam? Do they complement each other or do you ever face a conflict about which to prioritize?

 
They definitely complement each other a lot. In fact, they help to resolve any contradictions for me. At times, I paint to dance and I dance to paint. It's a process. They are both very strong mediums of visual art. They are interconvertible, not only interrelated. I am blessed to have been able to practice both together now for a long time. They both inspire each other.

Painting by Himanshu - 'Chandi' - Inspiration from Kalika Puranam

Don't you think they are both taxing when it comes to time and effort?

 
Of course. I had to give up my regular job because it was getting very difficult for me to give equal time to both these arts, which were no less than raising a child. At the same time, they are what bring you up - they help you grow from within, from your soul.

In the Radha Krishna series, I noticed that you chose to give them a very bare white background, with just a 3D effect given to the river flowing, which is also white.

Painting by Himanshu, The Messenger River

It was more to do with the flow of the structure in the middle, the river, which is flowing. You must have noticed that one side of the river was very soft and flowy and the other was very turbulent. This was meant to show the turmoil and the peaceful side of any relationship. On one side is Krishna and on the other, Radha. They are both sitting as if they do not want to go towards each other. And yet, the river is narrowing between them so that they can come closer to each other. At times, time wants us to come closer but we refuse to walk that space. Hence, the painting was titled the Messenger River.

Painting by Himanshu - 'Solitude' - Radha Krishna Series

Often, you see tulsi garden or something similar in the background of Radha Krishna paintings. But the ornamentation on Radha and Krishna and the detailing on the surroundings was very minimalistic as compared to other works of art.

 
Yes. This is because I was inspired by my contemporary teacher, who has been teaching me this art. He has been pushing me to reduce the lines and find a new self. As you see in the arts, first you learn a thing and then you unlearn to learn more about it. This teacher taught me to use fewer lines and more of these contemporary thoughts and plain backgrounds. The plain one was Ashtapadi - 'Dheer sameere vasati vane vanamali', depicting Krishna sitting on a green patch, which is the vanam, covered with his own pitambar, just removing it, looking at the sky, which was giving him a mood of arousal and nudging him to call Radha to that garden.

Paintings by Himanshu: Andal series

You have chosen to do the Andal series in miniature.

 
One of my prominent gurus has been a miniature artist and since childhood, I have loved miniature works, which hasn't gone out of my style and body. Yes, I chose them to be miniatures. In most of these miniature works I have used water on paper.

Painting by Himanshu: Ardhanareeshwara

 

Painting by Himanshu:The Enchanted Bee

And they are cute too! In the Shiva and Shakti series, you have shown various sizes, colours and layering of thought processes too.

 
The subject has been coming before me repeatedly in different stages and in different forms. Right after Rama ji taught me the ashtakam, I thought of bringing it down on a piece of paper, like a sketch (that sketch is still preserved with Dr. S. Vasudevan). Then I started my research on the subject. I found that there were different mediums, different traditions that talked about it differently. I would like to mention here that although the concept is shown to be half Parvati and half Shiva, even half and half being together is technically not the union of the Brahma or the Brahma being one. What I did was in one of my works displayed there on a yellowish background, you can't tell whether the vermillion merges into the ash or the ash is mixing with the vermilion. Instead of saying half and half, I would like to say that I give equal weightage to it. Like when you make purple, red and blue are mixed equally. It is no more a shade in that case. Similarly, ardhanari is also a declaration of the equality of shades. Equality is not just of form but also of vision, of thought. It is a larger definition, which unfortunately we do not delve deeper into. So, if I paint 10 paintings, then one or two will definitely be ardhanaari.

Paintings by Himanshu: Tara & Mahashodashi

Lastly, tell us more about the painting of Mahishasur Mardini, which Dr. Vasudevan danced in front of.

 
Yes, I'm so grateful he chose the painting to be his muse, and even Kamalini amma loved it. She sat there like an observer for a long time. Dr. Vasudevan himself is a very strong Shakta believer. When he saw the painting, he felt it is not just about killing of the demon Mahishasura, but also making him realize 'prakrityai namah, vikrityai namah'. She is considering them all part of herself and delivering all towards the right path. That's why Mahishasura is shown to have the head of the buffalo and body of a human being. So, it is not just Mahisha, it is anyone who might have the head or thought of the buffalo. If the head is that of the ego, she is there to relieve it. The colour I chose specifically was one that overpowers most other colours - red and its family. The simple reason is that for me, red is a meditative colour. Although people have a different notion, every colour is meditative in a different manner. It is not just about anger. It can also bring in tandem your rajasic gunas if it is nicely mixed with orange. So, my red was carrying a lot of orange inside it and the flairs were towards invoking the rajasic pravritti inside and balancing it. The corners were made in green to calm any anger and passion.

DR.S. VASUDEVAN

 
I also spoke to Dr. Vasudevan about the inspiration, references and music in his performance.

Dr. S Vasudevan

Piece and inspiration
It started with an absolutely blank canvas, with wondering where to put my dot first. I had in mind Himanshu's art and its depth, his understanding of art, music, dance and tantra, which reflects though his paintings, along with their collaboration with the very different vocabulary of Rama's paintings, which have many colours, swaras and sounds, perceived as being from sources of nature itself.

Dr. S Vasudevan

All these gave me a very solid confirmation of the idea that humans are lovely copycats. We try to embellish everything that comes our way. We are very honest in receiving everything and we are at times very creative about whatever happens through us, assuming that it's our creativity. With this thought in my imagination, I opened the book of Rudrayamala, and in Rudrayamala, the first shloka that came to me is 'everyone is an artist'. The art of humanity is endless - innumerable languages, vocabularies, dimensions, diversities, but everything is art. Who is causing this?

Dr. S Vasudevan

Then this verse of Lakshabham - "paramananda rasa parashiva" in Tantra - this verse inspired me with the thought that Shakti herself tries to build her identity; Kundalini, which is common in every creature in this cosmos, every being, living and non-living… Everything is caused and created and sourced and forced by Kundalini herself. Kundalini is a cycle of life and reliving and again reliving - she gets a new identity and creates it herself. This verse very beautifully gave me the reference of Kundalini - she woke from timeless space, she filled herself in every dimension, covering all of space, but she is still formless, attribute-less. Where she finally hit herself was sahasrara, and that we celebrate as Parashiva or sahasrara. That is her domain where she has kept the unlimited, timeless lives, experiences, memories and identities. The sahasrara is the absolutely endless space where everything has already happened. From there, she draws all her identities and attributes and paints herself with the laksha - the red molten colour. She paints that across her body and then she sees herself with all the limbs and attributions. Then she is celebrated as Sundari, where she is red.

Dr. S Vasudevan

This one very simple statement to understand is that we wake up every day with the same thought but different goals, and we find different ways to live the same thing. Hence, even if I take the same raga, it is not the same I sang some time ago. This is all caused by the Kundalini in us. One is inner force, which is absolutely powerful. One is external force, which comes with influences and requirements and is momentary. One is timeless, one is momentary. Where both meet is what makes it art and life. There, life becomes art and Kundalini celebrates it as art.

Dr. S Vasudevan

The last verse I took said "akula kula mayanti, chakra madhye sphuranti" (from Rudrayamala) - at every chakra of ours, which is responsible for various emotions, sentiments and causes various experiences for us to go further, beyond - Kundalini travels that tantra, which is brahmarandra. From that coil of hers, she awakens herself, erects herself through the brahmarandra, she wakes to drink the nectar of the sahasrara to manifest her own cosmos. Thus, she becomes Sundari.

Dr. S Vasudevan

 

It took me just 5 minutes with the book - these two verses just splashed and I said, I'm done, my work is over. And then I wanted to add something that is worldly - for common use. Since Guru Wasifuddin Dagar was coming to the event and my brother Aravindan is his disciple, I asked my brother whether I could do something on dhrupad - can you send a reference to something like Kabir. Then he said, why don't you do Nayak Baiju's sahitya? The poetry talks about the sound and the whole science of sound turning into music, the journey of anahata nada to aahat nada and to musical sound. He gave me this beautiful poetry and that took care of the dimension of intangible randomness to a tangible approachability of the flow of thought. It spoke about the sound which comes from the sushumna, rises and manifests into swachham nada in the manipura, rises till anahata, achieves an emotion and a purpose, becomes a sound in the vyukti, then we use it according to our requirement and thus it becomes musical. This poetry is so beautiful.

For the ending, I chose these words from the Soundarya Lahiri shloka - "tandava lasya paraya". Every step we walk is in both tandava and lasya - firmness and fluidity combined. We breathe in, we breathe out. That itself is tandava and lasya. Every step, every breath, every sight is firm and we read so many emotions within this one line of this sight into object, that line is surrounded by creepers of emotions and thoughts. That is tandava lasya. This is the work of Kundalini - she enables us to generously do whatever we want to do. So hence, it is an attribution for this supreme artist, Kundalini.

Dr. S Vasudevan

Music for the second piece
I was very skeptical about how to treat this. I checked with my brother whether Baiju Nayak's was a traditional composition, or do I have any liberty to think musically in my own way. He said it is a poem, with lyrics by him, it is his sahitya, but it is rarely available sahitya. It is there in the Dagar parampara, many people know about this particular poem, and then he gave this to me. But you're right - the Bhairav I wanted to start initially because the Bhairav is one of the very mystic and spiritual combinations of notes. The one raga which demystifies every maya is Mayamalavagowla - demystifying maya is what this raga does to us when we sing or listen to it. Once you are in it, it's hard to emerge from this raga. When I was in the alaap, a statement of waking up of the Kundalini, it was 'rasa ananda vardhini' - because her happiness only could cause happiness to everything she has made. If we are happy, it's because she is happy in us. If she is not happy, it reflects on us. So that's why we keep trying to celebrate that energy in us. So, every possible beautiful thing should be celebrated - she loves celebration. She is always engaged in creation, always new, fresh, so vital. Hence, rasa ananda vardhini. She only can bring ananda to all of us.

I ended with Durga because the second one I chose, Charukeshi, is not totally parallel to Bhairav, it has some swaras of Bhairav but others are different, and from Charukeshi it was easy for me to change to Durga. Initially I thought of Durga only, but then I placed this composition in-between.

Using this space and painting - coincidental or planned
I should be honest - nothing was planned in the presentation. Light, space, audience, this whole dimension - the painting with Mahachandi behind me - she is Kundalini's fullest personification, I would say. Kundalini has no form, but she is vital energy, and Chandi is the complete form of Kundalini. She is the limitless personification of Kundalini. It appeared as if she was doing it through me. I could just draw energies easily - the colour red - she was there, painted in the colour, it proved it was Kundalini personified and standing behind me, making me do this. I think the space had its own energy with the people in front - my guru Kamalini amma in front of me, her eyes and presence are enough, they give me creative thoughts and allow me to do anything.

Pics: Anoop Arora

Note: This article first appeared in narthaki.com