The Legendary Beauty Damayanti

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This excellent painting, a large size canvas rendered in oil, represents the legendary beauty Damayanti, the queen of Raja Nala, the king of Nishadha Pradesh, one of the known Janapadas during the period of the Great Indian War – the Mahabharata, with Narwar, situated on a tall hill, its capital. Nala was exceptionally handsome and undefeatable in war. Once when strolling in his garden he saw a flock of swans arrive there. They had golden feathers. He caught one of them but the bird prayed him to set it free and promised to do him a rare service if he let it go. When asked, the bird said that it would go to Damayanti, the daughter of Bhimaraj, the king of Vidarbha, possessing divine beauty and convince her for marrying him. Nala let the bird go. In the course of time the swan, released by Nala, reached Damayanti and narrated to her how rare was the beauty of Nala and that he alone was for her the suitable husband. This inseparably associated the bird swan with Damayanti’s iconography, medieval or modern.

Later, in swayambara Damayanti chose Nala as her husband, though Dikpalas – the guardian gods of ten directions, like Indra, Varuna, Agni, Yama among others tried unsuccessfully to beguile her mind. After a period of happy married life and with a daughter and son born to them, Nala lost his state and everything in the game of dice to his brother who ousted him and Damayanti in just one piece of cloth each. Later, by sheer bad luck he lost even that piece of cloth. When on the verge of starvation he asked Damayanti to go to her father but she did not agree. Hence, one night he left her sleeping in a house they were staying at and went away. Somehow Damayanti reached Chedi and began serving the queen mother. When Bhimaraj, her father, came to know about the sad plight of his daughter, he sent teams to search her and thus she was brought to her father’s house. Later, she searched Nala and thus the two were re-united and their kingdom was also regained.

This background – a mighty king possessed of rare handsomeness, who even gods adored, and a royal born princess endowed with divine beauty, but the entire life being exceptionally pathetic and full of trials, greatly helps in appreciating Damayanti’s person, or her iconographic vision in art. As in this paintings Damayanti is usually represented unlike a mighty king’s consort or a daughter of another, ruling as large a kingdom. As almost always, here too she has been portrayed as a relatively simple person though with divine aura, grace and elegance enshrining her entire being – appearance, demeanour of face and every act. She has been represented as sprawling along the bank of her palace-pond caressing a swan reaching its waters, obviously a pre-marriage phenomenon when the swan lands on her pond’s waters as the messenger of Nala, and thus her face might be interpreted as dreaming of him she has heard so much of, from the bird. It however also reveals her pathos that has ever been her destiny, and hence, a feature of her iconography. A silk sari with zari border, a kanchuki – breast-band, and just a couple of ornaments define her high rank but not a prince’s. In the Nayika-bheda tradition seeking to classify women in love under various categories, she is a Hansini Nayika, the most virtuous, beauteous and faithful woman.

The artist has conceived her gold-pinkish form clad in red with maroon defining its shades and surges and gold highlighting her neck, arms and wrists, against a back-drop, consisting of the pond’s palatial enclosure, its floor, sides and columns, and the spaces beyond this enclosure, all created by assimilating various geometrical formations, rectangular cubes in particular, in black and blue mixed with different shades of light grey and green, giving it brilliant contrast. Besides that the painting is unique in creating the perspective of depth it also helps give Damayanti’s figure projection like a three-dimensional marble statue. A secular legend, Damayanti has been a favorite theme of Raja Ravi Verma, who gave to the art of the post-miniature era, unprecedented heights and founded a new school of Indian art. This painting is very close to his Damayanti painting or rather series of his mythical paintings.

This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a number of books.

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Oil painting technique – India centric

Oil painting is the most interesting technique in art. Unlike other paintings or art forms, oil painting is a process in which colored pigments are painted on the canvas with a drying oil medium as a binder. This medium helps colors blend beautifully to create layers and also makes them appear rich and dense. Several varieties of oil are used in this painting such as sunflower oil, linseed oil, etc., and depending on the quality of the oil, a particular consistency of the paint is developed. With the use of an oil medium, the painting gets a natural sheen on the surface which appears extremely attractive. India is famous for its old tradition of making oil paintings. This art form was brought by Europeans in the 18th century and is now practiced by almost all well-known artists. Nirmal, a small tribal town in the state of Telangana is the center of traditional oil paintings in India where the local people practice it with dedication. Most Indian artists still use the traditional technique of oil painting.

Canvas of the required size is prepared

The artists use either a wood panel or canvas made from linen or cotton. Sometimes the canvas is stretched onto the wooden frame to form a solid base, or cardboard may be used. The canvas is coated with a layer of white paint or chalk mixed with animal glue. This mixture is then smoothed and dried to form a uniform, textured surface. The wooden panel is more expensive and heavier but its solidity is an advantage in making detailed paintings with ease.

Sketch is drawn on the canvas

Now the artist starts to draw the subject of the painting on the canvas using the actual charcoal or a charcoal pencil. Sometimes, he may sketch with thinned paint as well.

Oil paint is applied using paint brushes or palette knives

Now that the rough sketch is prepared, the artist is now ready to paint. Oil paint, a special paint that contains particles of pigments suspended in a drying oil (usually linseed oil), is again mixed with oil to make it thinner for applying it on the canvas. Proper consistency of the paint is maintained to avoid its breakage. The most important rule for the application of oil paint is “Fat over lean” in which the first layer of paint is thin and later, thicker layers are applied. This means that each additional layer of paint contains more oil. This results in getting a stable paint film. Traditionally, paint was applied using paint brushes but now the artists also use palette knives to create crisp strokes. To paint using this technique, the edge of the palette knife is used to create textured strokes that appear different from that of a paintbrush. Sometimes, oil paints are blended simply using fingers for getting the desired gradation.

Smaller oil paintings, with very fine detail, are relatively easier to paint than larger ones. The most attractive feature of these paintings is the natural shiny appearance that is obtained on the surface because of the use of oil paint. The blending of colors looks extremely realistic and this is the reason why oil paintings are loved by everyone throughout the world.