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Descrizione dettagliata lotto
The present lot, painted in 1987, offers Ganesh Pyne’s interpretation and combination of two legendary stories – those of Savitri and Satyavan, and Behula and Lakhinder. One of several works created by the artist over the five decades of his career that engage with characters and episodes from Hindu epics like the Mahabharata, this haunting painting draws on mythical tales of devotion to give expression to the artist’s personal experiences of love and loss, and the profound meditations on life and death they elicited.
Savitri, the princess of Madra, was born following her childless father’s ascetic devotion to the god Savitr, who she was named after. In addition to her father’s pity, which she is said to have emulated throughout her life, Savitri was also blessed with inimitable beauty and a sharp wit. Unfortunately, these traits intimidated potential suitors, and Savitri decided to set out on a pilgrimage to find her own husband. In the forest, she met and fell in love with Satyavan, the son of a blind, exiled king. When her father and the sage Narada learned of her choice, the latter revealed that despite his many virtues, Satyavan was destined to die one year from that day. Savitri, however, insisted on going ahead with the wedding. On the day of Satyavan’s prophesied demise, Yama, the god of death arrived to claim his soul. Not accepting this fate, Savitri followed Yama into the realm of the dead. Impressed with her devotion, Yama offered Savitri any two wishes apart from the return of her husband’s life. Cleverly, one of the things she asked for was that she bear a hundred children with Satyavan. Realizing that this would indirectly mean returning her husband from the dead, Yama is moved by her intellect and admits defeat, returning Satyavan to the realm of the living.
Similarly, it was said that Behula could never be widowed, so she was married to Lakhinder to protect him from the wrath of Goddess Manasa who had vowed to destroy him. On their wedding night, the goddess was able to get one of the poisonous snakes she controlled to fatally bite Lakhinder. Following this, Behula courageously undertook the long and arduous journey along the river to the heavens on a raft alongside Lakhinder’s body. There, she was able to charm the pantheon of gods into resurrecting him. Immortalized in Bengali literature by poets like Jibanananda Das, Behula, like Savitri, is looked up to as the epitome of love and loyalty.
Exquisitely intertwining melancholia and beauty, the protagonist in this painting combines aspects of both Savitri and Behula. She is dressed in a vermillion sari with intricate gold detailing, reminiscent of Hindu bridal attire, and balances a kalash or pot on her head. Her long tresses fall around her shoulders and into the skeletal boat she stands in, while the flame from a torch next to her sends up a plume of sparks into the inky night sky. Conflating several Indian traditions of marriage and widowhood, including the controversial ritual of sati (whose etymology is sometimes linked to Savitri’s fabled commitment), the artist prompts us to question the ability to overcome grief and loss through devotion, and the existence of relationships that transcend time and the physical body.
Although paintings like this one draw from India’s greatest literary narratives, there is no “attempt to emulate or reproduce the dynamism of narrated action. There is, by contrast, a pure modernist emphasis upon the nature itself of still media, an absorption in the introspective, reflective property of the moment of viewing, a property transferred to the figures themselves, each caught up in a private act of meditation” (S. Chaudhuri, ‘Epic of Unhappiness’, The Telegraph, 18 December 2010).
In the moment Pyne portrays in this painting, it is hard to avoid his protagonist’s gaze. Her determination not to accept her fate and to reclaim her lost love led Pyne not only to hope about eternal relationships, but also to contemplate the wisdom, strength and selflessness of all the women who have made sacrifices for their families through the ages. On a page of preparatory jottings for this painting Pyne quotes from the play A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney, scribbling, “Women never have young minds. They are born three thousand years old.”
Savitri, the princess of Madra, was born following her childless father’s ascetic devotion to the god Savitr, who she was named after. In addition to her father’s pity, which she is said to have emulated throughout her life, Savitri was also blessed with inimitable beauty and a sharp wit. Unfortunately, these traits intimidated potential suitors, and Savitri decided to set out on a pilgrimage to find her own husband. In the forest, she met and fell in love with Satyavan, the son of a blind, exiled king. When her father and the sage Narada learned of her choice, the latter revealed that despite his many virtues, Satyavan was destined to die one year from that day. Savitri, however, insisted on going ahead with the wedding. On the day of Satyavan’s prophesied demise, Yama, the god of death arrived to claim his soul. Not accepting this fate, Savitri followed Yama into the realm of the dead. Impressed with her devotion, Yama offered Savitri any two wishes apart from the return of her husband’s life. Cleverly, one of the things she asked for was that she bear a hundred children with Satyavan. Realizing that this would indirectly mean returning her husband from the dead, Yama is moved by her intellect and admits defeat, returning Satyavan to the realm of the living.
Similarly, it was said that Behula could never be widowed, so she was married to Lakhinder to protect him from the wrath of Goddess Manasa who had vowed to destroy him. On their wedding night, the goddess was able to get one of the poisonous snakes she controlled to fatally bite Lakhinder. Following this, Behula courageously undertook the long and arduous journey along the river to the heavens on a raft alongside Lakhinder’s body. There, she was able to charm the pantheon of gods into resurrecting him. Immortalized in Bengali literature by poets like Jibanananda Das, Behula, like Savitri, is looked up to as the epitome of love and loyalty.
Exquisitely intertwining melancholia and beauty, the protagonist in this painting combines aspects of both Savitri and Behula. She is dressed in a vermillion sari with intricate gold detailing, reminiscent of Hindu bridal attire, and balances a kalash or pot on her head. Her long tresses fall around her shoulders and into the skeletal boat she stands in, while the flame from a torch next to her sends up a plume of sparks into the inky night sky. Conflating several Indian traditions of marriage and widowhood, including the controversial ritual of sati (whose etymology is sometimes linked to Savitri’s fabled commitment), the artist prompts us to question the ability to overcome grief and loss through devotion, and the existence of relationships that transcend time and the physical body.
Although paintings like this one draw from India’s greatest literary narratives, there is no “attempt to emulate or reproduce the dynamism of narrated action. There is, by contrast, a pure modernist emphasis upon the nature itself of still media, an absorption in the introspective, reflective property of the moment of viewing, a property transferred to the figures themselves, each caught up in a private act of meditation” (S. Chaudhuri, ‘Epic of Unhappiness’, The Telegraph, 18 December 2010).
In the moment Pyne portrays in this painting, it is hard to avoid his protagonist’s gaze. Her determination not to accept her fate and to reclaim her lost love led Pyne not only to hope about eternal relationships, but also to contemplate the wisdom, strength and selflessness of all the women who have made sacrifices for their families through the ages. On a page of preparatory jottings for this painting Pyne quotes from the play A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney, scribbling, “Women never have young minds. They are born three thousand years old.”