pilgrims also perform the ceremonies of worshipping their ancestors. For performing these, a professional class called Pandas, maintain "Bahi" registers where the genealogical tree of the pilgrims & their ancestors is built up. On account of the competitiveness of their occupation, many Pandas are considered unfavourably by many pilgrims.
Unlike the European painters, who would sign their work & also leave behind historical records of their lives, even the greatest Indian Painters like Manaku & his younger brother Nainsukh of Guler left almost no record of their lives. Many Indian Painters were content to remain anonymous. Hence, unearthing their identity & the time in which they worked was well nigh impossible.
The eminent art historian B. N. Goswamy hit upon the idea of collecting their birth details & family tree from the Pandas' "Bahi" registers as the painters, like pious Hindus had visited these pilgrimage centers to pay oblations to their ancestors. He mentions that without this information shared by the Pandas', his scholarly tome "Pahari Masters" could not be written.
So an ancient system devised for ancestor worship has become a research tool to identify & reconstruct the lives of eminent painters!
No comments:
Post a Comment