JANUARY 10, 2009

Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi, organized a special lecture on "Born of the Same Womb: Painting and Poetry in the Indian Traditon" which was delivered by Padma Bhushan awardee Prof. B.N. Goswamy, the renowned art-critic and historian, at the Multi-purpose Hall, State Library, 1st Floor, Sec-34, Chandigarh on 10th January, 2009. Prof. P.L. Mehra, eminent historian and thinker, chaired the prestigious lecture. Prof. Manju Jaidka, Chairperson of Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi, paid rich tributes to Prof. B.N. Goswamy, the polymath, by ranking him in the tradition of Coomarswamy, Bharat and Picasso. Initiating the discussion, Prof. P.L. Mehra underlined the urgent need to integrate apparently dissimilar fields – aesthetic, political cultural in the context of the present times - which only a versatile thinker aesthetic like Prof. B. N. Goswamy can accomplish.
Prof. B.N. Goswamy, citing liberally from Mammata, Vishwanath and Bharatamuni, emphasized the integral and organic discourse of SAHITYA- which includes sound, sense of and music and produces a sense of harmony. Quoting further from the Vishnu Dharmottar Purana, he said that the CHITRASUTRA pointed to the inter-relationship between poetry and painting (CHITRAKAVYA) highlighted by Anand Coomarswamy. Rajput Paintings also bring out the interconnection between vernacular painting and poetic contexts.
A work of painting, Prof. Goswamy said, is the representation of the poetry of things, of every day details, of ordinariness and of revelation. The impact of art is not immediate - it is revelatory and unfolds gradually - whether it is visual or verbal. Hence, an art work is a multi-media work-necessitating different ways of reading it.
Prof. Goswamy showed how the secular and the sacred are inextricably interwoven in these paintings. The Lecture, interspersed with a free sprinkiling of poetry, was attended by a large appreciative audience. He concluded with the recitation of the highly evocative poem "Mera Safar" by Ali Sardar Jafri. The poem is a celebration of life: human beings come and go, individual life may come to an end, but life is eternal -- the cosmic force renews itself in constantly. The cycle of life goes on. This is an idea repeatedly presented in poetry as well as painting.

The next event of the Akademi will be on 20th January – a talk on the connectiontion between Films and Literature by Prof ML Raina, another eminent scholar.

The internet is a great boon. It gives us online texts of Jafri's poems. If you are looking for the one that was quoted today, you may find it at: http://www.razarumi.com/documents-archive/my-journey-mera-safar-ali-sardar-jafri/ and the original Urdu version is available at http://www.razarumi.com/mera-safar-ali-sardar-jafri/