#angika

Inktober Day 28 : Skeletal

Medium : Digital Ink, G Pen

In the Angika version of the story of Bihula, she crosses a ghat near Katihar, where the water is so caustic it melts her dead husband down to his bones. Bihula calmly collects his skeletal remains and trudges on to meet Nethula Dhobin to bargain for her husband's life. Art on the boat and the urn (manjusha) features Manjusha painting.

Read Bihula-Bishahri story here.

This Inktober, I'm planning on using the prompts to explore South Asia's folk traditions!

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However, the recalling of this image of female power without any direct reference to the goddess figures is significant: the strong traditions of goddess worship in contemporary India coexist with patriarchal systems that attempt to restrict, in particular, their sexual and sensual powers, besides other aspects. In the naravahana image onstage, on the other hand, conceptions of the goddess resonate but are not directly represented. In Chandralekha' s choreography this goddess-like woman, as she sits atop her human carrier, uses hand gestures to symbolize the weapons she wields  tigernails that rip apart, a spear, a bow and arrow, a sword. She also wields objects more related to cultivation than sophisticated warfare, a scythe and a chopper. All of this links her to agricultural traditions and fertility cults as well as to martial traditions, in which she reclaims her active participation and her central role. [Butting Out: Reading Resistive Choreographies Through Works by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Chandralekha, Ananya Chatterjea]

Chandralekha* in the Naravahana** sequence from her path-breaking production Angika Madara, 1985. Photo credit: Sadanand Menon