Two great art forms, one universal language - Story

At the stroke of dawn when the whole of India united to celebrate the Sixty Ninth year of Indian Independence, I, on the other hand, at the tick of the afternoon left my home to discover India through its two unique art forms – Gond and Dastangoi. Both are heartfelt representation of human emotions that portray wonderful stories. The former makes use of colours, while the latter leverages literature and poems. One is depicted by the strokes of brush, while the other uses the writer’s sword. One highlights the relation of humans with Mother Nature, while the other, the human nature itself.

For years Gond art lived in the remote areas of Madhya Pradesh with its aboriginal tribe - Gond. The art first discovered its life on the walls of the mud homes of Gond Adivasis, who still decorate their homes to showcase their inherent bond with nature. But on the Independence Day, it was displayed on an art paper and framed neatly by Sukhnandi Vyam at The Artisans, near Rhythm House, Colaba, Mumbai.

The artist Sukhnandi, one of the finest of our time used his natural talent to exhibit an art form that has an incredible history of celebrating life replete with songs, folklores, anecdotes, myths and rituals. But like every art form that evolves with time, Sukhnandi too gave his individual touch by using bold strokes and vibrant colours. What I learned from his paintings is that he filled the characters or rather the soul of different forms and shapes, be it Gods or Animals, with eyeballs and fish scales. His designs were the reflections of his strong likings towards certain patterns. Every pattern was intricately used to put life into his imagination. A few of his graphic art carried the unusual pattern of trees, which clearly implied the story of the tribal life and his Gond tribe’s indelible belongingness to their roots - jungle.

Pic Courtesy: artalivegallery.com

While Gond Art slowly found its place against the great walls of lavish living rooms and 5 Star hotels after two decades of travail, ‘Dastangoi’ - the art of oral storytelling too, recently, regained its lost glory, which was almost sepulchered in the lanes of memories and a few hardbound books. ‘Salaam’ (salute) to few master ‘dastangos’ (storytellers) who helped awaken the stories from the nightmare of extinction and revived the almost defunct art form just a decade ago.

Pic Courtesy: timeout.com

Born during the 16th century, the word Dastangoi is of Persian origin; Dastan means Story and goi means to tell. The art travelled from the lanes of Iran to the chowks (city squares), private households, afeem khana (opium house) and Mughal Darbar in India, but I discovered it in Jeff Goldberg Studio at Gazebo House, Bandra.

Organized by four dastangos, of which, one was one of my closest friends, the two hour program that got ticked by the twilight, took me to the yore days of Nawabi lifestyle. The two narrators wearing traditional Lucknawi attire - white kurta-pyjama & taqiyah (cap) introduced me first to the four major genres of Dastan, which are Razm means Love, Bazm means War, Tilisim means Sorcery and Ayyari means Trickery. His introduction slammed my mental lexicon with the richness and beauty of two great languages - Hindi and Urdu. And that was just a beginning. He concluded the introduction with a pinch of request by announcing that the storytelling art came into existence at a time when the mobiles had no vajuth (identity).

The first pair came out, sat on a diwan in Vajrasan position that was covered with a white sheet, had two masnad (bolsters) and two steel vessels filled with water. There was a time the vessels were filled with opium. Indulging the flavour, the dastangos of earlier times narrated the spellbinding stories.

With witty mannerisms, encapsulating expressions and dramatic gesticulation, the first pair recited Dastan–e–bachpan, the story of Amir Hamza and his Ayyar (Spy) friend Amar, who are always up to some pranks in their school days. With their shrewd behaviour and jocose nature they generated a pain in the neck of those they wish to. Hilarious right from the beginning, the Dastan tickled everyone's funny bone, while simultaneously whipping the audience's brains with the greatness of Urdu language. The twenty minutes of Dastan taught me a lesson to get familiar with a few great Urdu words, which I tried too hard to deposit in my vocabulary but couldn't.

The second pair came out and did exactly like their predecessor; sat on a diwan and with an expression filled with excitement narrated a new tale. The story began with an ayyash (someone who flaunts) King from Rajasthan, who’s proud of his archery skills. Every morning he experimented his unusual talent on his beautiful and young wife by shooting the arrow on a bull’s eye that used to pass through his poor wife’s nose ring. The helpless wife gasped for breath; not just once or twice but 108 times. She spills-out her agony to one of her close friends who's a sharp-tongued lady. Out of rage, the lady expresses herself through words that were powerful and sharper than the arrow hit by the King.

The Maharaja, however, gets to know about his Rani's friend reaction from the Rani herself. And the moment he gets encountered with the spiteful words, he, at once gallops to reach the lady’s home to teach her a lesson by marrying her.

He brings her to his huge palace the same night, and without waiting for the sun to strike the horizon, he takes his second wife on the terrace and experiments his archery skills. But his newly-wed wife was too good to be astute to take revenge of a marriage that happened without her consent. She voices her opinion that she’ll believe the King's exceptional trait, only if he accepts her challenge to marry princess Choubali. And here began the curious case of a princess - Dastan-e-Chouboli; a story of a princess who has taken a vow that she would never speak in her life. If someone makes her speak four times, she would marry him or else the person will be arrested and sent to prison for life. With witty mannerism, encapsulating expressions and dramatic gesticulation the second pair too weaved a yarn of words into a storyline that made everyone’s belly wobble across the ribs till the end.

Both the art forms were distinctive, yet had one universal connection – story. Both unleashed what resides beneath the beating heart of humans; something that travels from head to toe. Both were born at two different territories but discovered me as one of the sources to introduce them to people across the world. Let both the art forms find new audiences to appreciate their immortality.