Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India (23 page)

By 1939, one sees a different Sarada. Desperate to sell his works he was no longer talking of exclusivity and reputation. He had painted the life of Buddha in thirty-five pictures for Digvijaysinh Ranjitsinh, Jamsaheb of Nawanagar, who had given him permission to get them published in book form with the condition that the size of the pictures should not exceed 7 x 5 inches and a minimum of 2,000 copies be published. Sarada had also done the life story of Krishna in thirty pictures and wanted to publish them as a book.
¹⁶⁷
He put both proposals to Poddar who agreed in principle to publish the Buddha’s life. He also showed interest in the Krishna pictures and selected most of them for reproduction in the 1939
Gita Tattva Ank
(Issue on the Principles of Gita) of
Kalyan
, saying Gita Press would like to keep some of the ‘pencil paintings’. And then came the subject of price: ‘I know it is so ugly to talk of prices and remuneration for a thing of art which is always priceless, but we have to see to this aspect also in this matter-of-fact world.’ He reminded Sarada of the larger mission of Gita Press which was a ‘religious institution with an ideal to propagate spiritual ideas
through publication of journals, books, pictures, etc’
.
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Negotiations between Sarada and Poddar stretched over a year, both being hard bargainers. While standing out for better terms for the Buddha and Krishna books, the artist acceded to Poddar’s request for permission to reproduce some of the Krishna drawings in
Gita Tattva
Ank
: ‘By publishing some of the pictures, I think, I shall be able to secure the opinion of the members of my committee.’
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Sarada agreed to charge Rs 80 (rather than Rs 100 quoted earlier) per picture for reproduction of the pencil drawings as a ‘special concession’ only for Gita Press.
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A long silence after this from Poddar, possibly a ploy to draw out Sarada, worked. In March 1940, a desperate Sarada revised his earlier terms, asking for a lump sum of Rs 3,000 for the Krishna book instead of Rs 5,000; and Rs 2,000 for the Buddha rather than the previous demand of Rs 3,000. Sensing that Sarada was vulnerable, Poddar drove an even harder bargain. He used the pretext of World War II and the consequent rise in paper prices and non-availability of art paper and ink to tell Sarada that the printing of the books would be delayed, also stating that the terms were still too high. At the same time, he asked Sarada to draw for the
Sadhana Ank
(1940)
.
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Sarada immediately brought down his demand by Rs 500 for each of the two books. ‘Immediate publication of the volumes is what I am really anxious of [for] . . . I hope you will now understand my point of view and will leave no stone unturned for the spread of our spiritual culture and love of god, for which you and I are both struggling hard.’
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Three days later, Poddar wrote back, first asking Sarada to send six paintings on the lives of Krishna, Buddha and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu for the
Sadhana Ank
, and then dropping a bombshell—expressing his helplessness and inability to publish the books in the immediate future though agreeing to place the reduced terms before the publication committee of Gita Press.
¹⁷³
His hopes dashed, Sarada sent the six paintings for the
Sadhana Ank
and pleaded for remuneration of Rs 150 as he was in ‘bad need of money’.
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The paintings sent for
Sadhana Ank
were returned to Sarada after use and to his dismay he found some of them were ‘injured’ and one painting had been ‘retouched and disfigured by your press artist which is objectionable’
.
175 He also complained that the ‘pictures were badly packed with the result they got defaced’
.
Sarada took ‘strong exception to the negligence’, asked Poddar to warn the in-house artist and claimed damages of Rs 150. He sent back the paintings so that Poddar could see the damage for himself. Poddar’s reply that he did not find anything wrong must have upset Sarada greatly; however, he was in no mood to further spoil a relationship that was already strained. He did not repeat the demand for damages, but wrote in a conciliatory tone: ‘I was much surprised and sorry that you misunderstood me, for the retouched picture had no connection with you; it was only a sort of information for you that your block maker may not do such sort of things at all, in future. You very well know my relations are different with you . . .’ However, he held his ground that the ‘face of the picture was badly retouched and in the background too there were spots of blue colour which have definitely reduced the quality of the picture’
.
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While Sarada Ukil was busy carving a niche for himself in far-off Delhi, the Calcutta art scene that he had left behind was witnessing a fervent debate between revivalists and those steeped in the Western art idiom. At the centre of the debate was Ordhendra Coomar Gangoly, editor of the highbrow art magazine
Rupam
and an ideologue of the Bengal School.
¹⁷⁷
He was a firm believer in the ‘existence of a specific national and race ideal in all great art’, and argued that ‘nationalism was of far greater value and significance than cosmopolitanism in the artistic development of a country’
.
¹⁷⁸
Gangoly’s idea of cultural nationalism tied in with that of Gita Press.

In the 1930s, in the midst of intense debates that had ramifications in Calcutta, Bombay and London,
¹⁷⁹
Gangoly, also an artist, was contributing paintings to
Kalyan
. A representative of Gita Press picked up the works from his Calcutta residence. Gangoly was fond of giving detailed instructions to Poddar on the manner in which his paintings were to be displayed and their identification.
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He also demanded two sets of colour blocks as soon as copies of
Kalyan
were printed. Gangoly prepared and sent blocks of his paintings for the
Hindu Sanskriti Ank
in 1950, but these were received so late they could not be included in the special number. Poddar promised to use his works in the subsequent number but not before making it clear that the Rs 170 that Gangoly had spent on getting the blocks made was higher than the estimated cost of Rs 140, which itself was more than what Gita Press generally paid for such blocks.
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For the
Hindu Sanskriti Ank
, Poddar also contacted the superintendent of the Archaeological Survey of India requesting rights to ‘reproduce some photographs that had already appeared in several books and periodicals’
.
A substantial request was made to the chief secretary of Travancore state, for the reproduction of twenty photographs and plates from T.A. Gopinatha Rao’s
Elements of Hindu
Iconography
(1914).
¹⁸²
The permission came just in time for the pictures to be included in the annual number.

The most intriguing of the artists contributing to
Kalyan
was Dattatreya Damodar Deolalikar. A graduate from Holkar College, Indore, Deolalikar went to the Sir J.J. School of Art, Bombay, on a state scholarship, where he trained under Cecil Burns, A.K. Trindade and Gladstone Solomon. Considered a master watercolourist, he later taught at the J.J. School and his influence could be seen in the works of his star students, including N.S. Bendre and M.F. Husain. Deolalikar returned to his hometown to become the principal of the Indore School of Art in 1929. Though honoured by the Holkar rulers of Indore, Deolalikar went through a serious financial crisis during the recession of the 1930s, as his salary was not increased for many years, forcing him to give private tuitions. After a stint as professor emeritus in the Gwalior School of Art, he settled down in Delhi with government help.
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It was during the period of financial distress that Deolalikar knocked on the doors of Gita Press for work. He communicated with Poddar mostly through telegrams showing the acute urgency of his need. Frustration had set in within a year of his becoming the principal of Indore School of Art. Deolalikar wired Poddar about the possibility of getting six months’ leave in 1931 and sought his advice. Then even before Poddar could reply, Deolalikar sent another telegram to say he would be in Gorakhpur within a week.
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Gita Press wired back asking Deolalikar to wait, and Poddar wrote to him that it had been decided not to spend too much on pictures, so ‘we had to give up the idea of giving you work throughout the year. Please do not proceed on long leave. You can take a month’s leave and come here. Right now our desire is to spend little and get little work from you.’
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Deolalikar did not lose hope. He began sending paintings and drawings from Indore and seeking more assignments; he would also ask for some kind of interim payment to meet his expenses.
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He kept Poddar posted of even the minutest progress in the assignment—for instance, the number of days it took for an oil painting to fully dry.
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Deolalikar got regular assignments from Gita Press throughout the 1930s, which supplemented his income; he occasionally demanded money on an urgent basis. He also did not give up the desire to visit Gorakhpur, applying for six months’ leave in 1932,
¹⁸⁸
and it is likely he made the trip to Gita Press.

Kanu Desai of Ahmedabad was another prominent artist who contributed to the corpus of Hindu iconography at Gita Press and
Kalyan
. He was a student of Ravishankar Rawal—artist, editor of the iconic art magazine
Kumar
, political activist who along with Nandalal Bose decorated the pandal for the Haripura Congress,
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and also a first-rate teacher. Desai’s work is today housed in the Baroda Museum, as curated by the art historian and Indologist Hermann Goetz.
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Desai’s association with Gita Press began in the early 1930s, and by 1938 he was asked to do cover illustrations for
Kalyana-Kalpatraru
’s
Dharma Tattva Ank
. He also offered to prepare illustrations on a list of subjects that included such abstract themes as dharma of humanity, dharma and war, value of faith in God and many others, so that they could be used throughout the year.
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Asked to contribute drawings for the annual number of
Kalyan
on
Gita Tattva
(1939), Desai sought Poddar’s help for ideas as he felt it was ‘not easy to draw and give the most suggestive, proper and symbolic ideas in pictures on Gita unless one has properly studied it and taken it to heart’
.
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Daughter of a Hungarian father and a Russian mother, both teachers in Geneva, Eve Yvonne Maday de Maros came to India in search of her love, army officer Vikram Ramji Khanolkar of the Sikh Regiment, whom she had met while he was holidaying in Europe after his course at the Royal Military School, Sandhurst. Once in India, she married Vikram, imbibed the Indian way of life and culture and took a new name, Savitri. A painter with a deep passion for Indian mythology, when asked by Hira Lal Atal, adjutant general, to design the Param Vir Chakra, independent India’s highest medal to be given for wartime bravery, she used the image of a double vajra (thunderbolt). Coincidentally, the first Param Vir Chakra was awarded to the late Major Som Nath Sharma, brother-in-law of Savitri’s elder daughter.

Savitri’s husband was posted to Nowshera in the North-West Frontier Province in 1939 when she contacted Gita Press for the first time with her paintings. She sent two pictures for publication in
Kalyana-
Kalpataru
. One was a watercolour representing ‘the essence of worship’ or ‘adoration’ and the second was a ‘china ink silhouette representing Sankar or Natraj, the lord of destruction at play’.
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Gita Press accepted her works and Poddar, as it emerges from another of Savitri’s letters, sought her permission for ‘retouching’ the ‘adoration’ painting. Savitri agreed but demanded, like other artists, that the originals be returned once the block was ready.
¹⁹⁴

The most successful and prolific artist for Gita Press was Binay Kumar Mitra from Allahabad. Along with Jagannath Chitrakar and Bhagwan Das, Mitra became a resident artist at Gita Press. A Bengali from Allahabad, Mitra’s work continues to adorn the pages of
Kalyan
even today.

By the late 1960s, Gita Press had built a huge bank of art works but had begun losing its artists mainly to age and illness. In their editorial comment in the
Upasana Ank
(Issue on Worship, 1968) of
Kalyan
, editors Poddar and Chimmanlal Gosvami spelt out various reasons for the special number having fewer illustrations: ‘Our old artist B.K. Mitra has lost his vision and cannot draw any longer. Jagannath Chitrakar, our second competent artist, has passed away. Bhagwan Das is a good artist but does not keep good health these days. Therefore, we could not give as many illustrations as we wanted. But those that are given are beautiful and soulful.’
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In 1955, President Dr Rajendra Prasad inaugurated two artistic innovations at Gita Press in Gorakhpur—Gita Dwar and Leela Chitra Mandir. According to Poddar, the elaborate architecture and sculpture of the new gateway, Gita Dwar, represented the confluence of Indian art, culture and devotion. The gateway has figures of five deities—Narayan (Vishnu), Shiva, Ganesh, Surya and Maha Shakti—considered the soul of sanatan dharma. Then there are two statues of incarnate deities, Rama and Krishna, along with seven symbols as well as architectural elements from seventeen places of worship across the country integrated into the design of the dwar
.
The choice of the places of worship is interesting not only for its geographical spread but also for its attempt to integrate home-grown religions like Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism with sanatan Hindu dharma—Ellora, Ajanta, Dakshineshwar, Dwarka, Mathura, Sitamarhi, Konark, Madurai, Amritsar, Khajuraho, Sanchi, Mount Abu, Kedarnath and Bodhgaya among others.
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