As painter Jatin Das spotted a few visitors reading the curatorial note on the wall of the gallery at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), where his vast collection of pankhas is displayed, he interrupted them. “You shouldn’t be reading this,” he said. The young art enthusiasts seemed to be taken aback by this unsolicited advice. But before they could react, Jatin suggested them to admire the intricate designs and patterns on these hand-made fans. “The beauty of these fans is in the motifs and embellishments. Make your own observations. Don’t follow the text.”
Indeed, the 77-year-old stands correct because the hand fans dotting the twin galleries of the art centre in the heart of the city are cultural markers of not only India but also of China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, among other countries. The make, design, motifs and embellishments on them signify the ethos of their home country. A representation of the local life, motifs of flora and fauna and indigenous elements form the core of the exhibited hand fans, reminding one of the significance of the object which might evoke a sense of awe among the children in urban cities. “It is a dying tradition in India and this collection is my effort to preserve it for the future generations,” says Jatin.
The exhibition titled, “Pankha: A Collection of Hand Fans from the Indian Subcontinent and Beyond by Artist Jatin Das” features hand fans in various sizes, shapes and materials. The make of a fan is intrinsic to the local geography and topography. For instance, fans of palm leaves are mostly made in the coastal belts across India whereas the cane and bamboo fans come from states like Bihar, Odisha and Northeast. “The date-palm leaves fans come for hotter belts like Punjab and Rajasthan,” he points out. The expansive exhibit also features fans made of silver, feathers, cotton, leather, wood and grass.
Jatin Das with a pankha
The mention of hand fans to many of the minds would conjure up images of the times when electricity hadn’t reached the hinterlands of India. Its supply erratic and no one had heard of a thing called ‘inverter’. It was during those times when a local fan came to the rescue of many to swat flies and bring the heat down. For many, it would remind them of the lost times when women, essentially, would fan their loving ones while they devoured food or slept.
“There is poetry and romance in pankha. The electric fan moves in a monotonous way, but a hand fan can be used in multiple ways. It is a tool to cajole, seduce, care and love,” he says.
A grass hand fan from Rajasthan
The pankha collection was first shown at the Crafts Museum in New Delhi and has since travelled across India and around the world to Switzerland, Philippines, United States, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. It will ultimately be housed in the JD Centre of Art in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
He doesn’t hide his overt madness about building a collection which has now reached a stage where only a dedicated museum can do justice to Jatin’s passion. Though the idea seems a bit too far-fetched given the government’s apathy towards the cultural institutions, the artist says perhaps this would be their last public showcasing in India. “Do we have a museum for miniarure works or a terracotta museum in India? We have forgotten to preserve our own traditions,” he says.
Fan with zari and satin from Lucknow
As a child, he used to collect leaves and kept them in his books. A process akin to the romance associated with the collection of flowers which often find their way into the pages of our books. But unlike our ephemeral fascination with this activity, Jatin’s collection boasted of around 1,000 varieties of leaves. Perhaps, that was the time when things were different and the wave of globalisation had not uprooted its people from the cultural moorings. The malady of cultural alienation among today’s generation, Jatin says, is home-grown. “We really don’t need to point fingers at anyone. We need to look within us. Our children are smart but the society and parents corrupt them.”
A palm leaf and bamboo fan
“How much importance is given to culture in the family? The problem is that we are blindly imbibing the leftovers from the West. They (foreigners) find substance in our culture, but we are aping their superficial culture. There is a complete degradation of the Indian values. Even educated people are not connected with culture. So, you can’t blame the government. We are in a terrible situation in the country, and time has come to introspect and look closely,” he says.
For a man who has passionately built this collection, he hopes one day it finds a permanent space in a dedicated museum. Until then, Jatin will continue collecting or find a way out to control his so-called madness.
(Pankha: A Collection of Hand Fans from the Indian Subcontinent and Beyond by Artist Jatin Das can be viewed until June 24 at IGNCA)
