Some early nineteenth century frescoes and the painter Angad of Simur - article ; n°1 ; vol.13, pg 99-110

B. N.Goswamy

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Arts asiatiques - Année 1966 - Volume 13 - Numéro 1 - Pages 99-110
12 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Sciences et techniques

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• Publié par: Arts-asiatiques
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1966
• Nombre de lectures: 20
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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Dr. Brijinder Nath Goswamy
Some early nineteenth century frescoes and the painter Angad
of Simur
In: Arts asiatiques. Tome 13, 1966. pp. 99-110.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Goswamy Brijinder Nath. Some early nineteenth century frescoes and the painter Angad of Simur . In: Arts asiatiques. Tome 13,
1966. pp. 99-110.
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/arasi_0004-3958_1966_num_13_1_949SOME EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY FRESCOES
AND THE PAINTER 'ANGAD OF SIMUR'
by Dr B. N. GOSWAMY
A fortunate circumstance attending upon the study of Pahari painting is that
the materials for it are not yet by any means exhausted. New evidence keeps on
turning up, sometimes from the most unexpected of quarters, at the same time as old
conclusions are re-examined under a newer light: in the atmosphere there is always
the excitement of discovery. Within weeks, thus, of the appearance of the comprehens
ive Pahari Murals issue of the Mar g (1), the present writer chanced upon some
frescoes that might be our first definite evidence of the Sirmur idiom of wall-painting.
Our present knowledge of Sirmur painting, miniature or mural, is exceedingly
meagre, and even within the massive volume of Mr. Karl Khandalavala's Pahari
Miniature Painting, Sirmur enters but once and that too in the doubtful company
'Sirmur' of Bilaspur (2). The only reproduced therein (fig. 45, "The Blind- painting
man's Buff"), is from the Svetoslav Roerich collection and is cautiously labelled as
having been "ascribed to Sirmoor". Some more information was given earlier by
Mr. J. C. French who, describing the fast disappearance of "old pictures" from the
hills, cited a case (3) from Nahan, the capital of the Sirmur state, where he failed to
locate the original of a photograph of a miniature showing a Sirmur ascetic (4) of two
hundred years ago, seen in the company of his two pet tigers and the then Râja of
Sirmur. This photograph Mr. French came upon at Nahan in a temple "which had
some frescoes on the walls. These were in the Kangra Valley style, but coarse and
(5).
(1) Marg., vol. XVII, n° 3 (June, 1%4).
(2) Karl Kharuialavala, Pahari Miniature Painting (Bombay, 11)58), pp. 239- 10. Mr. Khandalavala treats
the Sirmur idiom as belonging to the « Sikh Hill Kalam ».
(3) J. C. French, Himalayan Art (London, 1931), pp. 11-12.
(1) This must, almost certainly, have been the portrait of Bawa Banarsi Das Bairagi who is intimately
associated in popular memory with the foundation of the present town of Nahan, after the earlier capital of
Sirmur had been washed away by a great flood. See Sirmur Slate Gazetteer, Pt. A, 1004, pp. 110-11. The
Râja whose mentor the Bairagi Sadhu was, is described as Karam Prakash, and date is given as A. D. 1621.
See also Ranzor Singh, Tarikh-i R'ujnsal Sirmur (Allahabad, 1912), pp. 196-97.
(3) French, op. cit. .p. n. 100 D. N. GOSWAMY
The frescoes that form the subject of the present study embellish the walls of the
Mansà Devï temple (1), about seven miles from Chandigarh, the new capital of the
Panjab, an area one does not generally associate with the state of Sirmur. The shrine
is locally of great celebrity and lay once within the now extinct principality of Mani
Majra (2). This tiny state had modest beginnings, having probably been carved
out of territories that belonged to the neighbouring possessions of the Sirmur and
Patiala states. In its brief history, it continuously had boundary disputes with these
states which are duly mentioned in the British records (3). These establish
the immediacy of neighbourhood with Sirmur. The Gazetteer of the Ambala District,
in fact, goes further and explicity states (4) that the shrine of Mansà Devï "formerly
was in the Nahan territory". These are facts of some importance to us. For the
local tradition at the temple is clear on the point that the frescoes were executed by
one "Angad of Sirmur". The old priest at the temple even points to a post on a wall
in the courtyard, now whitewashed, where the artist had portrayed himself standing
in an attitude of adoration, with folded hands, facing the shrine of the Goddess (5).
This oral evidence could easily have been dismissed as doubtful, but there is an inscrip
tion (see fig. 9) in the southern gallery of the temple which is quite decisive on the
point. It runs:
"Itya Mdrkande Purdne sauarnake rnanvafnjlare Devïmahâtmane
Surath Vaisvar prdddnam ndma tridiso (')dhyâya 13
Idam Candi lisyatam Angadam Samvat 1870 caitra
muse suklapache."
Below this is shown the eight-armed Devï seated on her throne with a person
described as Râja Gopâl Singh, standing by her side with folded hands, his sword
lying at the Devi's feet. To the right of these figures is the scene which concludes the
thirteenth chapter of the Devï mâhâtmya of the Mdrkandeya Parana mentioned in the
inscription. It shows Vaish sitting under a tree with a fire in front, and Râja Surath
seated facing him, bent slightly forwards.
The inscription is in corrupt Sanskrit but quite clear in its meaning. The first
two lines refer to the portion of the text from the Mdrkandeya Purdna which is illustra-
(1) I have dealt with the history and architecture of the temple in some detail in a separate article:
"The Temple and Frescoes at Mansa Devi," to be published shortly in the forthcoming issue of the Advance,
Chandigarh.
(2) A brief note on the rise of Mani Majra to the status od a state appears in the Gazetteer of the Ambala
District, 1883-84, pp. 77-78.
(3) Several references to correspondence on these subjects occur in the Press Lists of Old Records in the
Punjab Secretariat, Vol. IV: Ludhiana, Karnal and Ambala Agencies, Issues from 1810-1810 (Lahore, 1915).
Thus, abstracts of letters are cited from Book 61, nos. 180, 229; Book 63, no. 43; Book 68, nos. 40-42; Book 71,
no. 89. The disputes were brought to the notice of the British Agents at Ambala, Subathu, etc.
(4) 1883-81, p. 78.
(5) Shri Bir Chand, priest of the Mansâ Devï temple, interviewed. I would like here to acknowledge,
with grateful thanks, the help I received from Shri Bir Chand and Shri Narain Das, priests, who supplied most
of the oral information, and Shri Thukral of the Public Relations Department, who took the photographs. SOME EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY FRESCOES 101
ted on the walls; the third line gives a clue of significance to us. Translated, the
third line runs:
"This 'Chandi' (was) painted by Angad. Samvad 1870
(=A. D. 1813), in the bright half of the month of Chaitra."
There can be no doubt about the meaning of this inscription. The "Chandi"
refers to the series of Chandi-theme paintings; the word "likhyalam" (lisyalam) is
from likhncl ("to write") which is almost invariably the word by which painting in
the hills is referred. Angad is clearly the name of the painter. There is no mention
of the place of this origin, but the traditional evidence and the geographical situation
of the shrine form strong presumptive evidence that he came from the hill state of
Sirmur, with which the contacts of this area, even after it had become a part of the
Mani Majra principality, must have retained some intimacy. We learn from the
Ambala Gazetteer that a trade "in country produce, especially ginger and spices" was
carried from here "with the hills" ( 1 ). It is also pertinent perhaps to remind ourselves
that at the time when the frescoes were painted, the affairs of the Sirmur state were
in great confusion, the Râja, Karam Prakâs, having been compelled by the British
to abdicate due to his lechery and incompetence (2). Concurrently, Mani Majra
was being ruled by a chief of zeal and ability, Gopâl Singh, who did, for the British,
"excellent service in 1809, and again in the Gorkha campaign of 1814 (3)", and suc
ceeded in winning for himself the title of a Râja from the Mughal 'sovereign' of Delhi.
This combination of circumstances is very likely to have conduced to the migration, at
least temporary, of a Sirmur artist to the not too distant submontane region where
the Mansâ Devi temple was then being built.
Angad's work does not place him in the front rank of Pahari painters. An
analysis of the Mansâ Devi frescoes may lead us, in fact, to conclude that his impor
tance is largely historical. These paintings conspicuously lack the air of grace and
elegance which makes Pahari painting such a delight for the eye. The figures are
generally short and squat, and the line, if not coarse, is at least careless. The colours
do not have lustrous finish which one has come to associate with the best work from
the hills; in these frescoes, in other words, we are not confronted with the achievement
of a genius. But this is not to say that the work is crude or has no merit. Angad
may not have belonged to the select company of the masters, but his work commands
respect. Not only is there a basic mininum of competence in these frescoes, but
certain features appear here which distinguish them from most of the other work of
the hills.