Articles

Birds Toilet: Stages of Human Evolution

Archana Hande, who visited the Ajanta Caves, accidentally meets an Ajantologist, muses on the ancient sculptures in the heritage site and attempts to draw parallels between the sculptures from the past hidden away in forest caves and the statues of leaders that capture the headlines of the present.

Have you ever visited Kanheri Caves? It is very much inside Bombay (somehow I can never say Mumbai.) Just 10 minutes away from my apartment is the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Bombay/Mumbai is a funny place; we have the Airport, the National Park, everything inside the city. The Kanheri Caves are deep within the green forests of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, around six kilometers away from the National Park’s main gate. These caves date from 1st century BCE to 9th century CE. The earliest ones are 109 tiny rock-cut cells, carved into the side of a hill.

During the last few years, I have been visiting most of the Buddhist caves and Monasteries from Nepal to Karnataka, but I then realised that I have not seen the Bombay and Aurangabad caves which are nearer to me and are supposed to be the Bible for artists.  So I recently visited Ajanta and Ellora with my artist friend. That was my second visit, that too within a span of one year.  As it was too close and could access any day, you might end up not seeing many things around you. As we say, you can never become a tourist in your own city. I always regret not being a tourist in Bombay and Bangalore, I miss out many things. An outsider sees more of your city than you.

Is it Ajanta or Ajintha? While travelling there, I was thinking, I’m going to Ajanta but most of the time read it as Ajintha. So is it like Bombay/Mumbai or Bangalore/Bengaluru?

First Day, Cave No. I:  I noticed a white man guiding a few ladies inside the Cave No.1, my excitement of looking at the paintings got diverted and I was amazed. That was Dr. Walter M. Spink, who has been campaigning to stop the cleaning process taking place now at the Ajanta caves. In Baroda, as soon as we mention Ajanta, Dr Spink’s name would come up, though his theory has been debated a lot. Many people do not agree with him and many people do. A leading Ajantologist, Walter M. Spink’s argument was that all the Mahayana caves were completed within a 20 years span which looks impossible, especially when you stand in front of those caves.

Standing in front of him, trying to remember art history classes was a real mental torture, as I didn’t remember anything. But I was excited to meet this legend, as all my art history classmates worshiped him. He too was happy to hear the words ‘Baroda Fine Arts Faculty,’  took me around explaining few things and slowly I was rubbing off the fungus which was layered around my memory stick. After he left, I remembered what the local guides had told me during my last visit. This time, we got a royal treatment from all the cave-caretakers as they had seen us spending time with Dr. Spinks. I preferred what the local guides and the cave-caretakers were explaining, because it was fictional, with all kinds of masala, some of it their own and some that had been narrated down generations like a Chinese whisper. Most of the cave-caretakers refused to take any token money from us. Either they were scared or were impressed with us as we took a minimum of an hour for each cave where else the common tourist routine is:

Breakfast at 8, going to Ajanta from Aurangabad 2 hours, finish seeing all the caves in one hour, going down to the river for a picnic lunch. And then off to Ellora and finished by evening.

The cave-caretakers’ language was very funny. One thing in common was that they all loved the caves and said they know the caves inch by inch. Many told us stories of a local tiger which visit them at night, so we were warned not to climb the opposite hill early morning to get a full view of the caves. After every cave they chatted with us in length, but one of the guys wanted money. He told us in English: “Working full day stomach small small child.” As he was an adult we couldn't understand the relationship until we translated it into Hindi which can be translated into English as: ‘I have small small kids, I work full day to fill our stomach.’

But, the way these caretakers where involved with each sculpture makes me rethink about the importance of public sculptures, like the Ambedkar statues that you will find near Ellora. The statues are so well-protected that Ambedkar looks as if he was being jailed. Returning to Bombay/Mumbai, how important is the multi-crore Shivaji statue in the middle of the sea, double the size of the Statue of Liberty? How important are public statues ?  If Shivaji is important, then why not Mayawati or Mulayam, as in history. Basically, it leaves a relic of one’s power. In Ajanta, the sculptures, along with the leaving the power of relics, was also part of the daily lives of the people who made them, but here it is just the power of status. In the multi-crore Shivaji statue's case, the pride, status and power are whose? Is the public sculpture a public demand or a vote bank? Can the money be utilised in a proper channel, like for the farmers?

The reputation of historical or fictional figures like Shivaji or Rama is so damaged; we almost feel they fought this year’s election.

Which again reminds me of my story in search for Victoria:

Lost Throne

In Mangalore, Bangalore, Madras, Calcutta and Bombay I was searching for the Queen Victoria statues – and figured out she is displaced everywhere:

In Mangalore no statue of Victoria was seen, may be she did not reach there.

In Madras, it has now been shifted from downtown to a college campus and the best part is the collage authorities, staff  &  students are not aware of it. But when I went there, she had a caretaker who wouldn't allow me without permission. Thanks to me, the at-least the authorities were educated.

In Calcutta, she has been displaced to the inner premises of the Victoria Memorial, while her original place was in the middle of the road in front of the main gate of the Memorial. But now she has been replaced with an absolutely standing straight statue of Aurobindo, who is not facing Victoria but showing his back to her. The part which I liked is that he is regarded as a saint and here he is surrounded by half nude angels which was Victoria's, so the pedestal remains with Aurobindo, Victoria loses out on this property.

In Bombay, Victoria used to sit in the Fort area in the centre of the main road. I think under the Shiv-Sena rule she was shifted, and it seems the Government did not want the throne in which she was sitting, but wondered poor woman how she must be sitting now, then the rumor was cleared that no Government kept the throne, but sold the canopy to an industrialist, and now there is a problem in the industrialist family deciding which family ancestor should be standing or sitting inside the canopy.

My hunt for finding Victoria continued, then I realised she has been transferred to the zoo, which was called Rani Bagh (Victoria Gardens) but now it has been changed and named after Shivaji’s mother, as Jijamata Udyan Zoo. Few people call it ‘Jijamata Udyan Zoo,’ but ‘Rani Jijamata Udyan Victoria Gardens,’ the best name collaboration till date !

I go and find her installed next to a dustbin, in a bad shape. Her nose is chopped off, face is not clear, anyway as she was not a beautiful queen, it didn’t matter, though the sculpture was beautifully carved in marble. Oh, forgot to tell you, inside the zoo there is a museum: Bhau-Daji Lad Museum, earlier known as Albert Museum. Asked the authority of the Museum, if the  Queen’s sculpture will be installed inside the Museum after renovating. He said no, she will be there where she is now.

After a few days, somebody informed me there was another sculpture of hers in Victoria Terminus which is now Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, so I went there, but couldn't find her. Then I started enquiring, most of them looked blank, ‘Who Victoria.’ Many porters showed me the angle which is on the top of the building. Suddenly one person came to me who has been following me from a long time. He advised me –

“Why don’t you go to the enquiry counter ?”

I thought it was a brilliant idea, but then he added, “Ask them to announce her name and she will meet you there.”

So my search ended, the Power became a common person for me.

Presently my query is – will all People in Power one day become common men/women or will they be seen in the midst of the sea or will that huge public sculpture become a utility place (other than being a birds’ toilet), like what we see in these historical caves ? 

Art was part of the daily life not just as an exhibition piece, though I agree it has been always a record of flaunting different kinds of power and the relics of the time. But do we always want to believe and trust in human evolution?

 

(Archana Hande is a visual artist who lives and works in Mumbai and Bangalore. She holds a BFA in Print Making from Viswa Bharati, Santiniketan and MFA (Print Making) from M.S.University, Baroda. Her mixed media installation project, ‘Victoria House’ (2006, Act 4, Rethinking Nordic Colonialism: A Postcolonial Exhibition Projects in Five Acts, NIFCA, Finland) had explored the elements of colonialism still found within the five port cities of India which had served as main gateways to India for the colonial forces. Email: archana_hande@yahoo.com  )