Well Known Poet & Painter From Kashmir
BY AVTAR MOTA
Ghulam Rasool Santosh was not a Shaivite or Tantra theme painter alone. Not many of us know that he has done some superb portraits, Pencil and ink sketches and paintings in contemporary Art for which he received ample training from his Guru and teacher Prof N.S Bendre at Baroda.
Initially Santosh started with painting contemporary and Modern Art but from 1964 onwards , he shifted to painting Kashmir Shaiv Darshana and Tantra themes . He arrived at a single clean representation of human form not explicitly male or female either; Yes both inclusive that represented Shiva Shakti union.
Mohan Ji Wattal ( Ex employee Grindlay’s Bank ) informed me in 2010 when I met him in Srinagar
.“ Yes santosh ji would come to Swami Ji’s Ashram ( Swami Lakshman Joo the renowned Shaiva scholar from Kashmir ) sometime during summers . As a matter of fact Swami ji also loved him and always blessed him. He would be always seeking reply to his queries on Shaivism and Tantra from swami ji. One day I saw him asking some question about Sri Yantra which he sketched on a sheet of paper with a pen. He would relish Dalcheen Kahwa and kashmiri kulcha apart from his all-time favourite green leafy Haak cooked in typical kashmiri Pandit style.”
Swami Vivek ji of Vivekananda Ashram Nagdandi near Acchabal kashmir told me in 2009..
“ Santosh ji ( G R Santosh ) would come to this place . He would come with Ogra sahib . Ogra sahib was his special friend . Once santosh ji told me that after he went to Amarnath ji Yatra , everything in his Art changed and he moved towards Shaivism in his paintings. ”
Many Prominent Art Galleries in India and some galleries outside the country display his work.I can name some galleries like ..lalit kala Academy New Delhi, National gallery of Modern Art New Delhi, University Museum Chandigarh , Amar mahal Museum Jammu , Dhoomimal Art Centre New Delhi, Bombay Art Society Mumbai , Fukuda Museum of Art Japan, Glenbara art Museum , Peabody Essex Museum USA, Museum Of Modern Art New York ,Hotel Leela Kempinsky Mumbai ,Neville Tuli Art Archive Mumbai apart from other galleries and Museums in UK, Germany , France and Singapore .
He was awarded Padam Shri in 1977. Lalit kala Academy National award in 1957, 1964 and 1973. AIFACS New Delhi Award in 1984.Sahitya academy award to his book Besukh Rooh in 1979.1991 Kala Ratna Award by AIFACS. Artist of the year award in 1984 by Sahitya Kala Parishad AND sir cowasji Jehangir Award of Bombay Art Society went to Santosh ji in 1956.The list is endless.
THE ART OF G. R. SANTOSH
It was N. S. Bendre, the doyen of modern art in India who took G. R. Santosh under his tutelage when he arrived at Baroda in 1954 on a scholarship granted by J&K Government .It was Bendre’s teaching that exposed young Santosh to many forms and genres of modern art including cubism , surrealism and abstractions . At Baroda , Santosh also learnt the technique of colour application so as to create luminosity on canvas .Starting his journey with a deep fascination for Cezanne and the Cubist treatment of his canvases , Santosh did some wonderful landscapes, portraits, ink sketches , pencil sketches ,pure abstracts and figurative abstracts . He also drew many impressive portraits especially of Poet Dina Nath Nadim , artist Triloke Kaul , Sharon Lowen ( Odissi dancer from the US) and Yashorajya Lakshmi (wife of Dr Karan Singh) . He also drew some self-portraits in the moulds of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali . However deep inside his heart , a yearning had already taken birth to arrive at something that was rooted to his land. Some fringe elements of this yearning can be seen in some sketches or paintings of his early period.
Suddenly , something strange happened in his life. A visit to the holy Amaranth cave of Lord Shiva in 1964 was a great turning point in his art . Santosh describes this spiritual experience as under:-
“I was overwhelmed by a joy that I cannot describe in words. I wished I had wings so that I could soar like a bird all around and absorb all this purity in me, to wash away all the stains of my inner self. I felt that the Supreme Lord, in the form of Shiva, was divulging his ever benevolent presence there. The next night was spent surrounded by the mystique of the full moon over Panchtarni, the meadow of five shimmering rivulets. And finally the cave revealing the majestic crystal white ice Shivaling. That was spectacular. The florescent light emitting from it was heavenly…… After I returned from the Amarnath Yatra, a distinct change came in me.”
( Source : ‘ A Monograph on Writer , Poet and Painter , Ghulam Rasool Santosh’ by Padamshri Pran Kishore Kaul published by Sahitya Akademi , New Delhi )
After his visit to Amarnath Shrine, Santosh did some serious work on Swayambhoo Sri-Yantra that he found on ancient Shila inside Chakreshwari Shrine at Hari Parbat, Srinagar . He learnt Sharda script and kept visiting Shaivacharya Swami Lakshman Joo and Prof. T. N Ganju for study of some ancient scriptures , Shaiv Darshana and Rishi Vasugupta’s Shiv-Sutras . In his monograph on the artist , Padamshri Pran Kishore Kaul writes that during this period , Santosh practiced meditation, took Deeksha from his spiritual Guru and got engrossed in creating a world in which one sees, through line and colour, the countless manifestations of Supreme Spirit embodied in the union of Shiva and Shakti .This was the period when Santosh moved permanently to geometric forms of the ancient Indic civilization and became synonymous with the school that came to be known as “Neo-Tantra” . And from 1964, we find ‘Sacred Geometry ‘ appearing in his work.
WHAT IS NEO -TANTRA ?
The terror unleashed by the Chinese communist authorities upon Tibetans in 1959 , which drove the Dalai Lama and other religious leaders into exile in India and the west, provided the world a first-time access to the mysterious traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, paintings and sculptures. The sacred paintings and metal sculpture that the fleeing Tibetan refugees brought with them had esoteric symbols and elements of Tantra . Later, the Tantric teachings of Tibetan Buddhists in exile found a receptive audience among the avant-garde artists from the western world , many of whom already had long-standing interests in Hinduism, Zen Buddhism and other Asian spiritual and philosophical traditions and beliefs . The western world identified this new tradition with Sexual liberation , mysticism and countercultural movement. The western world tried to use Tantric art to fill the spiritual and cultural vacuum created by the world wars , machines and the runaway technology . The post-war American painters Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns have referred to their indebtedness to the universal and timeless aesthetic of Tantric Art.
In her article on Neo-Tantrism, cultural journalist, Rebecca M. Brown wrote that “the ‘Neo-Tantric’ art movement looked to Buddhist and Hindu Tantrism for its esoteric, abstract symbols and re-made this Tantric language into a contemporary Indian modernism. Neo-Tantrism appealed not only to Indian contemporaries but also to western audiences, as it represented an ‘authentic’ art form that escaped purely formalistic aspects of 1960s western art.”
G . R. SANTOSH AND NEO –TANTRA
In India , it was Dr. L. P. Sihare , the then Director General of National Gallery of Modern Art who coined the word ‘Neo –Tanra’ to describe the work of some artists who were inspired by the sacred geometry of Tantra and used it on canvas . And K.C.S. Paniker ( 1911-1977 ) was probably the first artist to use these symbols , forms and elements in his work “ Words and Symbols “ that he exhibited . S. H. Raza (1922-2016 ) , the doyen of modern art was also fascinated by Tantric symbols and forms and so were G. R . Santosh (1929-1997 ) ,Biren De ( 1926-2011) , Sohan Qadri ( 1932-2011 ), Mahirwan Mamtani ( born 1935 ) and many more. Raza , Santosh and Sohan Qadri moved to this elite group in the sixties of the last century . These artists represented a movement that began in the 1960s in which a new turn towards finding a universal visual language arose in the modernist Indian art through an engagement with the geometric abstraction of Tantric Yantras and Mandalas .
What sets G. R. Santosh apart from others in the Neo-Tantra tribe is the overwhelming influence of Kashmir’s rich Shaiv Darshana or Shaivism on his work. This influence makes him unique and the foremost artist of this genre. Quite often he comes up with an abstracted human figure that is central to many of his paintings done in Neo-Tantra style. This figure may appear like Yogi in deep meditation . It may look like an abstracted Ardhnarishwara representing union of male and female energies or what is generally known as Purusha and Prakariti or Shiva and Shakti. There are intricate geometrical formations surrounding this torso in Samadhi or Padamasana . The divine colours that illuminate his canvases , leave a soothing visual impact. His paintings done in Neo-Tantra genre are deeply rooted to the indigenous identity while simultaneously appearing like modern abstractions .
Inspired by some deep personal and spiritual vision, Santosh’s art appears to represent evocative responses to an inner transformation . His Neo –Tanric art is also an attempt to illuminate the link between an individual and the Brahmanda ( Universe ).Looking at the meditative art of G R Santosh , a serious viewer is inspired to introspect upon his own place in this Brahmanda or cosmos. He becomes doubly sure that he is a part of it and can’t act, think and live in isolation. He may accept the idea of everything being premeditated or a quest may drive him to look for something that may have been left out .
About the Neo -Tantric art of G. R. Santosh, Shantiveer Kaul writes this :-
“Viewed from a certain perspective most of Santosh’s Neo-Tantric paintings look like stylised portraits of the female form, seated in Padmasana ( the lotus position ). This is no mere coincidence. There is a definite suggestion of the female torso in the placement of geometric elements within the composition. This stylisation is symptomatic of the devotion of Santosh for Shakti, the Divine Mother. Santosh wrote Shakti Vichara in 1980, a long poem in the hallowed tradition of the epic Bhavani Sahasranama , dwelling exclusively on Shakti in her various manifestations.”
( Source : ‘The art of G. R. Santosh ‘ A book by Shantiveer Kaul )
THE SACRED GEOMETRY IN THE ART OF G. R. SANTOSH
Created in luminous colours that are radiant and unique,the paintings of G. R. Santosh have Bindus ,triangles , circles /Mandalas , squares, semicircles , oval shapes , hexagons , Yantras ,Lotus flowers and other geometrical formations surrounding a torso in Samadhi or Padamasana with waves of clouds . What do the geometrical formations in his art represent ? Let us examine some features of his Tantric geometry .
A Bindu is the centre of the Brahmanda or the cosmos .In Tantra , it is symbolic with both Shiva and Shakti . A Bindu is the source of creation . According to Tantra, all creation is preceded by Bindu, the focal tension which becomes the centre of everything.
A circle represents the Brahmanda or the cosmos . This circle can be referred to as both Prakriti, or nature, and the Brahmanda, the circular world of the Brahman ( ultimate reality ). The circle also refers to the horizon or the world we live in. A circle is symbol of deeper connection of the self with the universe .
A triangle with apex upward is Purusha or male or Shiva . A triangle with apex down facing earth is Prakriti or female or Shakti. A Kali Yantra, for example, shows only downward pointing triangles, because in Kali worship, nature is the ultimate reality before which man has to surrender. Shiva Yantra shows only an upward pointing triangle. In a Sri-Yantra, there are four upward triangles but five downward triangles. Five represent Shakti or female strength and point down while four point up and signify Shiva or male strength.
A square represents the space charged with spiritual energy. The outside of a Yantra often includes a square representing the four cardinal directions with doors to each of them or four gates, one in each of the cardinal directions. They are known as cosmic doors because it is through these gates that the aspirant symbolically enters the Yantra. The square can represent basics, structure and balance. It can represent the four main directions of north, east, south, and west. The intersecting squares create Ashta-Kona or eight corners, the eight-petal lotus. The eight-petal square around one circle and within another circle is one more common feature of all Yantras . Sometimes the Brahmanda( cosmos, is also represented by drawing a square in a circle.
A rectangle is very important in the ancient Shilpashastra (iconography). A worship place has an Antarala or vestibule that is always rectangular . This is the foundation of the temple architecture or the space leading to the inner sanctum sanctorum. It is the first spot of Dhyan Yoga or first place for a serious worshipper to arrive at .
An oval shape ( Sanskrit Andam or egg or symbol of fertility and creation ) symbolises fertility, creation and genesis of life. According to the Chandogya Upanishad (3:19), in the beginning there was nothing when the primal egg (Andam) manifested. The Vedas declare that creation began with the appearance of a golden cosmic egg (Hiranyagarbha) in the ocean of life (Prana). Symbolically, the egg constitutes the womb of the universe from which everything originates.
A Hexagon is created when two triangles penetrate each other . It symbolises the fusion of polarities, the union of Shiva and Shakti or male and female. This union is the cause of the manifested universe. As the hexagon is found throughout nature, organized religions insist it is a symbol of harmony and balance.
Apart from a painting , Santosh wrote short stories, operas ,dramas and poems. If his paintings represent spiritual verses on canvas , his poems also represent canvases in spirituality . Invoking Shakti, the supreme power that keeps everything in constant motion, evolving and destroying, Santosh muses:-
“Light manifest, truth revealed O Shakti,
You are the axis of time and space,
You are the infinite revealed in me,
You are the field of love and action,
Consuming universe back unto you.
Every flowing stream of nectar,
You are dispelling darkness in me.
Every spreading primeval sound,
You are my mother;
you are Bhawani, O Shakti.”
( Translation from Kashmiri by Padamshri Pran Kishore Kaul )
Avtar Mota is a blogger and his write ups appear in local and national papers and magazines
