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Of the god and animal
MALINI WHITE
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One could find any number of books on the elephant in Indian art, but Vikramjit Ram’s personal involvement and enduring love makes Elephant Kingdom his tribute to this animal
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ENTICING The combination of his architectural background and abiding love for the pachyderm sparked into an idea for a book when Vikramjit Ram saw the elephant stables in Hampi.
Under the aegis of Mapin Publishing and International Music and Arts Society, Vikramajit Ram launched his book, “Elephant Kingdom”, recently at the Alliance Francaise. Its timing could not have been more serendipitous, with Ganesh Chathur
thi that weekend, and elephants very much in the news: the story of the happy honeymooning circus female, and the hapless ones shot for “encroaching” into coffee estates and paddy fields.
Genesis
In an informal introduction, author-photographer Vikramajit spoke of the book’s genesis, sharing personal details of his quest. His commentary and marvellous slides based on four thematic chapters, proved ‘teasers’ for the book that takes the reader through well-researched and documented historical and cultural facts, legends and myths. One only wishes that more photographs had been included; the many exclusions could easily make for another slide presentation.
Other books exist on the Indian elephant in art, but Vikram’s personal involvement and enduring love makes “Elephant Kingdom” his tribute to this animal. Appropriately, it was a matriarch who fostered his early love of elephants. “Mrs. Ramanna, my maternal grandmother, told me Puranic stories, and Gajendra Moksha was a favourite. As a child, my holidays were usually visits to the jungle, and presents given me were invariably elephants in some form.” Though that was not limited merely to its depiction or image; Mrs. Ramanna seriously considered gifting Vikram a live baby elephant: “She thought it would be quite happy tethered in the back garden of our Museum Road house.” She was only dissuaded by the horrified reactions of more practical relatives, who were obviously familiar with the term “white elephant”.
After graduating from NID Ahmedabad, Vikram freelanced as a graphic designer. Whenever he found work stifling, he made forays into various parts of the country, photographing and researching architectural sites. The combination of his architectural background and abiding love for the pachyderm sparked into an idea for a book when he saw the elephant stables in Hampi. “I was struck by the fact that such beautiful quarters were built for elephants that elephants were so venerated, and it spurred me on to research its role in relation to humans.” Walking into a small bookshop there, he found the Matangalila of Nilakantha, an obscure text on elephant lore; it boded well for his intended project. His odyssey thereafter was strewn with other such happy coincidences.
“I am always up very early on my travels, to catch that special light at sunrise. In Ranakpur, I was at a small Surya temple, when a purohith entering the temple asked me if I’d had a bath. When I passed muster, assuring him that that was always the first thing I did, he asked me to perform abhishekam for the deity. I had never heard of a layperson being allowed to do that.”
Another incident: “Walking around the Osian temples, a Rajasthani woman was begging, saying her aged father was blind. It upset me, but I turned her away.
“Later in the day, going down one of the very narrow alleys in the village, I was plastered to the wall by the most amazing music that resonated in that confined space: it was the old man, eyes greyed over with cataract, playing the sarangi, while the same woman who had begged, sang a traditional song with a voice like a bell, pure and clear.”
More such personal experiences - not all of them as fortuitous - of his trips in Madhya Pradesh will be in another book, to be published soon.
An animal lover, Vikram is keenly aware of Indian hypocrisy towards animals: “Lord Ganesha is so popular, we do puja to him as the Remover of Obstacles, but we think nothing of killing the Indian elephant. We are going to wipe out the species. Not only are they shot for their ivory and for so-called encroachment (whose land is it anyway?), often dynamite is put into ragi-mudde, which blows away their jaws and causes horrendous suffering.”
With so many recent global disasters connected with rain and water, it is tempting to think that divine elephants are wreaking their revenge for these atrocities on their earthly counterparts, but as ecologists and conservationists of every hue rightly point out, we humans never seem to learn.
However, Airavatha knows that in his terrestrial elephant kingdom, he has a warrior in Vikramajit: “July was very hot, without any rain. One afternoon I received my copy of the book from my publishers.
“Literally, the minute I opened the couriered package, the heavens burst and it just poured with rain. My graphic designer phoned me to ask if I was happy with the book, and all I said was: ‘Can you hear the rain?’ (Did the cell phone ad get its idea from Vikram?!); she understood.”
With yet another example of serendipity, the celestial Cloud-Elephant’s benediction brought the Elephant Kingdom venture to a close.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
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