Indian folklore is rich in both content and subject. It is
different because it has to be. Geography, language, seasons, topography,
events and activities and cultural expressions determine nature of folklore.
Both Indian and Indologists have documented and studied folklore of India and
published it too. It still is alive as studies because new interpretations are
possible that demand new kind of illustrations and artistic depictions. India
has been a rich depository of native folklore and British have been a diligent
people to collect every bit of information and publish it during the days of
the empire. Majority of artistic depictions of folklore on rains pertain to the
celebrations and love lore of the youngsters giving it a kind of flavor and
perspective. Some of the tales pertain to adventurous expeditions taken up by
love hounds to meet their beloved at distant places or elopement to go out of
bounds from the hot pursuits of wards.
The National Museum of India has a good collection of the
miniatures on the subject and publications containing reproductions on art
paper. The Publication Division of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting,
Govt. of India also has a few in its name besides a few independent publishers.
However, the sources have been the folios that were placed in the book and were
all drawn in hands. Many manuscripts already in collection or collected during
the surveys by nodal persons deployed by National Manuscripts Mission also had
these folios that tell a cultural connect with the people of India and its
expressions in visual art forms.
Haryana is no exception as my own surveys being carried out
since 1986 have revealed paintings on the subject in both tempera and secco-tempera.
Many of these were found in private rooms of the havelis, Nauhras, temples,
memorial chhatris, Chaupals (Community building in village set up), shelters on
the masonry Wells and decorative domed structures or Chhatris built on the
corners of the huge platform on the structure of a masonry Well. Majority of
the paintings have vanished due either to neglect or perished when the
structures crumbled or demolished.
The painting shown here depicts the swing that is popular among
children and women folks of Haryana, mostly in rural set up. In the month of
Sravana when most Monsoon rainfall occurs in Haryana, people put up swings on
the nearby trees -mostly Neem (Azadirachta indica). In some places the swings
are fixed on mango or Jamun trees but putting it up on a thorny tree such as
Kikar (Acacia Indica) is prohibited as per the convention. Hariyali Teez (a day
that falls on the third moonlit diurnal occasion) is a great festival of the
season of rains (Chaumasa) in entire north India. This painting found in a
memorial Chhatri (A domed cenotaph) of Siddh Baba Tota Nath (connected to the
royals of princely state of Bharatpur in Raj.) was demolished four years ago on
the orders of (late) Mahant Chand Nath
of the Asthal Bohar Monastery to give way to a larger edifice that he planned
to build on the vacated land. The Chhatri of Siddh Baba Total Nath, a revered
person in those days was built sometime in the 1890s by Musalman masons, and,
its dome situated on the first floor, decorated in tempera paintings created
most probably by Chiteyras from Punjab....., most likely from Amritsar or
Gurdaspur. I had photographed the edifice and the paintings some 18-20 years
ago.
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