Dharmapuranam or the Saga of Dharmapuri is not the best-known work by legendary writer O.V. Vijayan. Despite being one of the best political satires in the language, it has been shadowed by Khasakinte Ithihasam, Vijayan’s first novel that is even to this date considered a legendary work all by itself.
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But for artist Jayan Bilathikulam, Dharamapuranam called to him a quarter century ago. He poured his talents out to create a series of art works based on the novel, which have been exhibited at his personal art gallery since then. The 6th edition of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) saw those works coming out of their sanctuary for everyone’s viewing.
Jayan Bilathikulam’s tribute to Dharmapuranam covers a 50-metre wall along the Kozhikode beach amid various venues of the KLF. The art works include paintings, sculptures, craft works in mixed media, and mirrors of different sizes and shapes. The general colour tone of the works emulates a sense of antiquity. The artist has also included a few passages from the work in separate panels so that the viewers, if they are unfamiliar with the work of fiction, could get a general idea of what it stood for.
Published as a serialised novel in 1977, Dharmapuranam is a political satire in which the author has left no stone unturned to lampoon the political establishments of the time. Though written before the emergency, it was published afterwards and turned out to be prophetic.
In Dharmapuranam, Vijayan portrayed the people of Dharmapuri initially as a lot who were ready to take all the insults meted out to them by the authorities. One wonders if the people who posed before the mirror at Jayan Bilathikulam’s expo with the caption ‘Subject of Dharmapuri’ were aware of this nuance.