Karnataka - Mysore   

Ramayana on the canvas

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

COLLECTOR’S ITEM: Renowned Ganjifa artist Raghupathi Bhat at an exhibition of replicas of his paintings on the Ramayana at the International Ramayana Conference at Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Ashram in Mysore on Friday.

MYSORE: Three years ago, noted Ganjifa artist Raghupathi Bhat of Mysore produced 60 traditional paintings portraying several important aspects of the Ramayana and gave it to Victoria and Albert Museum, the world’s topmost museum of art, in London.

The replicas of 12 such paintings are now displayed at the International Ramayana Conference at Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Ashram, which began here on Friday.

“These paintings convey the essence of the scripture,” says Bhat, who read Valmiki Ramayan to imagine and portray the epic’s journey on the canvas. Incidentally, Mr. Bhat is one of the important persons to revive the ancient Indian art, Ganjifa.

Bhat said: “The traditional Indian paintings on the Ramayana were made on the request of Victoria and Albert Museum.

“Since the ashram is hosting the international conference on the epic, they asked me to display replicas of a select few paintings in view of the occasion. As I had the images of the paintings on my computer system, the print outs of them (selected ones based on the importance of the events) were taken in bigger sizes for the display.”

Mr. Bhat had portrayed the Ramayana in various art forms in the past, but the paintings for the museum were specially done going through the pages of the epic to come up with the drawings. He has now embarked on a project of depicting the Vedas on the canvas.

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