I have to confess, when I pick up a book that contains photographs I often skip over the text. For some reason, which I can’t explain, visual images have a way of overwhelming the words and it is often difficult to focus on what a writer is trying to say when compelling pictures intrude on the page. However, in the case of Manju Kak’s new book on Kumaon, I was able to overcome my impulsive resistance and appreciated her prose along with the photographs by Anup Sah, Vaibhav Kaul and others.
As the subtitle, ‘of a land, a people, a craft,’ suggests this is not a superficial survey of Kumaon but a focused and insightful exploration of the connections between the central Himalayan region and the cultural traditions that took root along its ridgelines and valleys. Kumaon lies at the fulcrum of Himalayan geography, history and ecology. Positioned between Nepal to the east and Garhwal to the west, it provides one of the most accessible routes from India to Tibet, used for centuries by traders, shepherds and pilgrims.
The annual Mt. Kailashyatra still crosses over this mountainous frontier, though border tensions have reduced trans-Himalayan commerce to a trickle. The people of Kumaon trace their ancestry to many different points of origin, from as far away as Gujarat to neighbouring Tibet. Following the Gurkha occupation, the British established rule over much of this area, though Kumaon was soon at the forefront of the freedom movement. Environmentally, the region is unique in that it has a diverse array of flora and fauna, where species from east and west converge, along with a number of migrant birds, whose flyways take them back and forth to Central Asia and beyond.
Craft traditions
The most detailed and carefully researched part of this book concentrates on the craft traditions of Kumaon, particularly wood carving. Kak has obviously spent a number of years delving into the aesthetics and lore of this important art form, which is gradually disappearing. The ornate windows, door frames and balconies that overlook the narrow streets of Almora and decorate remote village homes provide a contrast to the rustic simplicity of the architecture. Stone walls and slate roofs give way to delicately chiselled floral motifs and geometric shapes that curve and knot in sinuous patterns. As Kak describes the winding paths and twisting contours of the mountains, one can easily imagine how these geographical figure eights and arabesques have been translated into maze-like designs that tease the eye and draw us inward. Positioned on the exteriors of homes, the elaborately carved facades also frame the occupants of the house as they look outward, creating an ornamented threshold between private and public space.
As the author points out: “The craft of wood carving can, in a sense, be regarded as one of the most representative aesthetic traditions of this land. It also provides a prism through which one can arrive at a clear understand of Uttarakhand and its people. There are practical difficulties though in reconstructing the history of the craft, for the practitioners are but a few in number. Those who still survive are now very old and know only fleetingly of the past. Most craft historians have recreated the origins of local wood carving from oral sources.” The fact that the material used by these artisans—timber from deodar and other trees—is a forest product and the embellishments themselves represent natural forms of leaves and vines, as well as birds and wildlife, speaks of a close affinity with the nature.
World of myths
Kak also enters into the world of mythology and religion, which is central to the lives of people in Kumaon. She weaves together stories goddesses and ‘goblins,’ from the supreme mother Nanda Devi to more earthy deities like Goril, reminding us how all of these divine beings reside in nature, beneath the shadows of snow capped mountain or in the gnarled roots of an ancient oak.
One of the aspects of this book that is different from other accounts of the Himalayas is the author’s focus on the lives, rituals and beliefs of women of Kumaon.
As Kak writes, “Today the women continue to comprise the most hardworking labour force in the rural landscape that dominates the hills. A woman might be venerated as a devi but in reality her burden is greater than a man’s… It is a common sight to see women labouring while the men sit idly at tea shops, gambling and drinking. ‘Look at me. I look old. Yet I am less than forty,’ said Nanda Devi of Mona village, named after the goddess… ‘Men think they buy us. Work, work, work, that is all there is in a woman’s life,’ she retorts.”
These interlocking narratives are entwined like braided patterns carved on either side of a village doorway in Kumaon, as intricate and eccentric as the underlying natural grains of wood.
In the Shadow of the Devi: Kumaon—Of a land, a people, a craft ; Manju Kak, Niyogi Books, ₹1,995.
