Jignasa Journal Of History Of Ideas And Culture Part 02

Author(s): Vibha Upadhyaya and Others
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

Page 35

Certain Specimens of Painting in Peshwa Period
pleasant period when the people in Maharashtra greet each other with til-guld or sesame seeds and jaggery. As the term indicates the married ladies are invited to each other's house, greeted with the applying of haldi (dried turmeric powder) and kumkum on their foreheads and scent on their hand and are given a flower and the gift by way of three handfuls of grains and a coconut which they are supposed to take in one end portion of their saree. This gift was called oti. Very interestingly, somewhere during the Peshwa period the gulabdānīs must have entered the occasion of haldikūnku to add fragrant grace. In fact, though, it was of a Mughal-make it entered the homes of the orthodox Brahmin Peshwas as a sheer luxury item.
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Painting on Ganjiphas
The historical records during Peshwa period mention many games as a pastime activity. There are references to the game of ganjipha in Peshwa Daftar records. The portrayal of animals found a place in the playing cards of the Hindus as in other games as well. Many times the animals have figured as the vahana or vehicle of some important deities e.g., lion for Durgā, elephant for Indra, mouse for Ganesh. Thus in case of the use of animals as symbols among the Hindus it was a mythological and religious association. Sawantwadi situated between Konkan and Goa has been famous for ganjiphas. This place is known even now for the wooden toys. The toy-carts and the wooden fruits coloured to appear as real have been traditionally made and sold at Sawantwadi. The ganjiphas have been also one of the traditional pastimes and games of this place. The traditional ones were made of wood. Some of them survive to this day but mostly the way as to how the game was played has become a historical past and the people are losing their memory with regards to this game. The most popular ganjipha pictures, also mentioned in the historical records, were having the pictures showing dashāvatāras or ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. (See, fig. no.3) It must be noted here that Dashāvatāra also is a performing art of Konkan covering Sawantwadi as well. The background of all the cards was of the same colour, a soft buff. Usually, there were different colours for each suit- vivid reds, yellows, shades of orange, rich browns and blacks and deeper tones of red and green. There used to be 120 cards in a pack divided into 10 suits corresponding to the respective avatara of Vishnu of 12 cards each. The ten incarnations and usual suit marks with colours were: Matsya(red), Kūrma(red), Varaha(yellow), Narasimha or Nrisimha(green). Vämana(green). Parasuram(tawny). Ramchandra(yellow), Krishna(tawny), Buddha(black) and Kalki(black). The pictures of these incarnations painted on the ganjipha show many variations and hence they are sometimes difficult to recognize. There were also the ganjiphas of the zodiac signs and were called Rashi ganjiphas.20 They included all the twelve star- signs. Navagraha ganjiphas was yet another type. Specific colours signified the respective planets. They were as follows: Surya Sun shown in yellow, Chandra= Moon in green, Mangal= Mars in red, Budha Mercury in orange, guru= Jupiter in brownish red, Shukra Venus in ivory or creamish white, Shani Saturn in blue, Rahu= Dragon's Head in purple and Ketu= Dragon's tail in violet.21
Chitrakathis: Story through Paintings
The word Chitrakathi literally means telling a story through pictures. These devices were generally used by the performers of Kirtan or musical performance based on an epic, Vetal Panchavishi, Panchatantra or Bhagvat i.e., the text concerned with Krishna/Vishnu. Kirtan was a village performance performed in the evening in a temple. It can even be called the oral tradition of transmitting the epic stories to future generations. Kirtan is performed in Maharashtra even today. In a way, then