RIDDHI BASATWAR B004

SHRAVANI SALVI B029

ANUSHA GANGISETTY B011
SAMRUDDHI YADAV B039

ASSIGNMENTS:

Assignment 01:

Based on the essay "Society in Miniature - Dassara Doll Displays" by Annapurna Garimella [From Art
Connect Vol 4, No 1, 2010]

Students need to answer the following two questions:

1.

Why is this essay titled 'society in miniature' - is it about the size of the figurines, is it about the life of
urban families around the collection and presentation of these figurines? What about the history of
Indian society does this essay tell as it transits from past to present?

ANSWER:

The essay discusses Dasara festival displays created by young girls and women. The creation of these
Dasara displays includes maintaining the class and caste hierarchical order as divinities are placed on
top, significant public personalities are placed in the middle tiers, and scenes of work and play are
placed below, which also mirrors the tiers in society in real life.

The essay also discusses the activism that occurs in these displays; people use them to discuss social
issues such as women's rights, self-employment schemes, traffic rules, and environmental concerns, but
they do so without causing a stir in people's beliefs and continue to follow the hierarchical order.

The author also describes how Dasara was celebrated in the past; for example, during the Vijayanagara
period, dolls of divinities, allies, and officers of the kingdom, performing and servant women, forms of
weaponry, and modes of warfare were all grouped together and arranged in an order, with the
Vijayanagar ruler and his kingdom's gods at the top. "Public Dasara festivities featured wrestling or kusti,
elephant battles, dancing, huge processions, and doll exhibitions, all conducted under the watchful gaze
of gods, kings, and colonial authorities" during the Mysore state colonial era.

According to the essay, some Dasara displays were supposed to portray a miniature model of society,
and historically, the festival was similar to "an event in which rulers asserted their cosmology as
supreme and valid in front of their gods and contemporaries." Artists now, in a tradition-following
manner, are inspired by this history and, as a result, continue to construct dolls and exhibitions of parts
of working society in miniature form.

All these instances demonstrate how society is portrayed in these celebratory events. Those who live
their lives under the watchful eye of society, beneath the lower percentage of people who have more
importance, allowing themselves to talk and have their own beliefs while adhering to the order.

This also explains the history of Indian society and how the caste/class structure persists even after
years of independence. The celebration of these events is only discussed in upper caste-middle-class
households that can afford to do so, while lower caste families continue to face discrimination. The
essay also discusses how the families that create these miniature displays and miniatures contrast with
the lives of the devalued domestic workers who work in these households and cannot afford to enjoy
the festival in the same manner that the upper-middle-class can.

"The miniature, as Susan Stewart writes in her book on longing, is a specific way of relating to labor,
time, narrative, and, indeed, the world at large." Relating to labor by seeing the opposing lives of little
dolls and the artisans who make them but do not have enough money to even afford their own artwork.

As the author states, "frequently I feel the Hindu celebrations have a stronger 'socializing' element than
a spiritual one," we can see that these festivals were also celebrated in the past as such activities. For
example, according to the records we have, the rulers used to put on such exhibitions and organize
gatherings that allowed people to come together and celebrate.

2.

How does this essay discuss the craft and presentation (visual forms, avatars, etc.)/display of the
figurines from the perspective of Caste and Gender in modern and contemporary India?

ANSWER:
The essay discussed how many upper-class people in the city display miniature dolls during the Dasara
Festival. Display makers make these creative and beautiful miniatures and render aspects of society.
“Miniaturization is described as a way to connect work, time, narrative, and also the world as a whole,”
by Susan Stewart.

These doll displays were a way to search and theorize how religion and rituals form our lives in the city.

The records mentioned in the essay show how these miniatures were made in earlier eras to represent
the class of society, for example, the displays of Dasara in Hampi included the gods, rulers, and people
portrayed in an order with the ruler and his gods at the top, which is still done today to represent the
society, displays of mythological scenes, important figures, artists' work, and so on. However, artists
have begun to include cricket teams, all-girl marching bands, scenes from Hindu rituals, temples
urbanscapes, and Ganesha's using cell phones and computers in their displays depicting modern and
contemporary India.

The author talks about how her interest in these dolls began when she was allowed to work on the
Dasara display in her house. They mention how this helped young girls and women to feel a sense of
authorship because they were in charge of these displays. This explains how women's participation can
bring about a change of perspective, providing people with representation and giving them a space to
talk about their problems. For example, when the essay mentions women empowerment groups
including issues like women's rights, environmental concerns, and so on.

"Perhaps the manageable scale of the Dasara doll event provides the ideal space for activism, which can
be successful in a limited space where the festive mood allows for old agendas to be revived or new
ones to be born." These Kolu-based events draw a larger middle-class audience to address new agendas.
Some claimed that the purpose of exhibitions and festivals was to raise women's consciousness. This
celebration is intended to remind women that they are the most essential members of the family,
serving as the family's guardians. It encourages women to worship Devi, have pleasure, and grow
empowered to become Shakti themselves.

'Grihani', the term used to describe the sensitivity of Dasra displays and the mode of representation,
shows the good taste and high culture of an upper-caste/class household through these small-scale
creations. Also, the short size of objects refers to pre-industrial production. Therefore, in Dasra displays
there are both interests with massive figures of gods and artisanal and peasant labor.
Some displays like the one in the essay which includes "a cow is ready to be given to a Brahmin, a form
of presentation no longer active today in urban settings, but which here remembers as a sign of
remembered class caste origins, most likely those of the display maker"

This again tells us how the class/ caste divide affects all aspects of life. The essay highlights how changes
are made but still within the holds of the upper-caste and class.

Assignment 02:

Readings for this assignment are:

1. Forest groves in Kerala and their integral relationship with the dance and ritual form Theyyam (see
link here)

2. Travels of the Gods at the Kullu Dassehra festival (see PDF attached)

Answer the questions (500 words each) not only in the context of the two articles shared with you -
Theyyam in Kerala and Dassera Yatras in Kullu -- but also some of the early Indian art discussed in the
class lectures.

Answer each question in the form of a brief creative and thought-provoking essay, taking examples and
issues from the key reference texts suggested as well as the course lectures connected to the subject.

1.

In what ways have cultural and religious rituals, images, forms -- have constantly been shaped out of
nature, natural environments and geographies -- how, and why?

Humans form ideas and cultures based on their interactions with the world around them. The majority
of early cultural rites were based on earthy elements like as fire, water, and soil. Early cities worshipped
the sun, moon, earth, stars, spring, and other natural phenomena. The majority of early cultures
worshipped the earth as the producer of life. The essay also discusses cultural rituals tied to nature, such
as the Theyyam dancing form. "A Theyyam is a ritualistic performance where pantheistic deities are
summoned to the body of the performing man, one who is almost always from a subaltern community.
Each of these instances of “possession” is rooted in a unique local myth, which in turn is rooted in the
ancient sacred groves of Kerala called kaavu. Each kaavu is a small rainforest, and these were in
abundance in the State until some years ago." The essay describes how the theyyam's decorations, such
as garlands and decorations made of areca nuts, flowers, leaves, and fruits, have always been borrowed
from nature. These deities are found in forests throughout the Malabar region.

As the article mentions “Spirit-worship, ancestor-worship, tree-worship, animal worship, serpent-

worship, the worship of the goddesses of disease, and the worship of the Graamadevata or village god,
all are part of the Theyyam cult".

Sun worshipping cultures are typically agricultural societies with mother goddess worshipping figures,
animal worshipping figures, and phallic worshipping cultures that symbolize snakes, trees, and so on.
Rain, sky, heaven, and trees are considered male spirits, whereas earth, river, and water bodies are
considered female spirits. This explains how the theyyam ceremony is deeply shaped by nature.

The goddesses are hereditarily embodied by designated men from specific communities in the theyyam
ritual, and the performance is held over a piece of land, the people living there have complete faith in
the deity who presided over the region, and the sacredness of the deity was extended to the grove, as
the essay mentions "The land and the dance and the myths nurtured each other. "

The author expresses his concern about the destruction of sacred forest regions, as the forest was seen
to be the deity's domain, where the performance that symbolized an offering to the deity took place.
The author also describes how, over time, the theyyam is being increasingly marketed as a tourist
attraction, and its deep symbolic character has begun to fade, and the dance part of it has turned into a
mere art form.

Modern techniques are being introduced, and members of such tribal cults are incorporating new ways
of celebrating, and old age customs are on the verge of extinction. The author discusses the recent
Brahminisation, which resulted in the relocation of the grove to a temple and the incorporation of Hindu
aspects into the rite. An astrologer once advised the people that the gods were jammed into the trees
and that the only remedy was to re-consecrate them in a temple complex outside the forest, where they
belong. To acquire divine favors, one of the astrologers even advocated that the old theyyam rites be
substituted with brahmin rituals.

"Places and geographies are active zones of politics and cultural processes" this essay talks about
understanding the relationship between "life and places, politics and spaces in the everyday lives of
people and their societies, their objects and their stories." and "The relationship of history to objects,
especially when objects challenge history, rather than history providing a context to objects."

During the seven-day Kullu Dussera Festival that follows Vijayadashami, over 300 devtas and devis are
worshipped across the Kullu Valley and make their way to the enclosure of Lord Raghunath, the town's
presiding deity. This explains how this ritual asserts a connection between culture, geography, and
space.

2.

What do nature gods and nature-based myths and rituals as they exist today tell us about present-day
politics with land, and changes in religions over time - how nature-gods and nature rituals have now
changed or got incorporated in the way politics or religion changes over time?

ANSWER

Cultures and rituals vary for a variety of causes, including environmental, economic, and political factors.
For instance, when this essay discusses the Brahmanisation of the Theyyam ritual.

The Theyyam is a religious performance in which deities are invited to the body of the performer, who is
usually always from a poor society. Each of these instances of "possession" is founded in a unique local
myth, which in turn is rooted in Kerala's ancient sacred groves known as kaavu, which means small
rainforest.

The goddesses are hereditarily embodied by designated men from specific communities in the Theyyam
ritual, and the performance is held over a piece of land, and the author of the essay expresses his
concern about the forests being cut down in which the ritual performance takes place, as the deities
presiding over this land have a relationship with it that should not be disturbed.

According to the author, "the theyyam deity is not unconscious of the Brahminisation and loss of the
sacred grove that has occurred." During a recent performance, the Kadayankathi asked the village
elders, "Where have my groves gone?" This shift in the ceremony demonstrates how cultures and
society evolve. When the people consulted an astrologer, he proposed that the gods were confined in
the trees and that they should be re-consecrated in a temple complex outside the grove.
The current state of land politics has resulted in the environmental degradation of the theyyam's sacred
place.

The second essay also cites a cultural ritual involving a link between location and dieties. During the
seven-day Kullu Dussera Festival that follows Vijayadashami, over 300 devatas and Devis are worshipped
throughout the Kullu Valley and make their way to the enclosure of Lord Raghunath, the town's patron
deity. This depicts themes of time, space, and collective memory while tracing a place's live traditions
through its geographical armature. It is an example of strong views and convictions manifesting
themselves in an air of mystical frenzy and devotional belongingness. The history of Kullu Dassehra has
become entwined with myths.

Assignment 03:

Here is a feature on the exhibition Discovery of India at the Nehru Centre in Mumbai, designed by NID,
Ahmedabad, and based on the book by the same title, by Jawaharlal Nehru as published in Domus India.

Do read the feature in good detail and also observe the photographs of the exhibition - this exhibition
was hailed as one of the best exhibition designs in Modern India, and the book is considered a classic of
modern literature in India and seminal text of the twentieth century. The book was also translated into a
long-running television series titled "Bharat Ek Khoj" directed by Shyam Benegal.

The new edition of the book is with an introduction by Sunil Khilnani, a scholar of politics and history,
and former director of the India Institute at King's College London.

Students are to answer the following questions based on the reading:

1.

Why do we write histories? Nehru as a young man is writing Discover of India less as a historian and
more as a young vibrant person wanting to engage with his civilization and people as he enters the
national freedom struggle... answer the former question based on this statement, as you have read
Khilnani and Nehru in the reading given to you.
ANSWER:

Writing history helps a community a nation, a religious or ethnic group understand the present in ways
that orient that group to the future. History allows us to observe and understand how people and
societies behaved. Writing history allows us to explore the world and the rich heritage of our countries.
History provides us with the data that is used to create laws, or theories about various aspects of
society.

Jawaharlal Nehru’s memory must be kept alive in the interest of our democratic and secular values.
Nehru started out writing his book an autobiography, which was an unexpected success, and then him
beginning to fitfully work on a sequel after being imprisoned once more in Dehra Dun jail. India’s distant
past as well as immediate past is complex and no one narrative would do justice to it, and this is simply
evident in our histories of architecture.” Hence, Nehru as a young man wrote ‘The Discovery of India’
less as a historian and more as a young lively person wanting to captivate his civilization and people as
he enters the national freedom struggle. “The book The Discovery of India, written by him (during his
time in prison) explored the cultural, historical and geographical discovery of our nation. It was a key
text during India’s struggle for independence from colonial rule as well as shaping the future of an
independent India. His conceptualization of Indian history was innovative, intellectually acute, and also a
political riposte to British instinct. It is a remarkable assertion of an individual imagination trying to give
his country a unifying sense of itself.

In Nehru’s case, he wanted to know about India and judge wisely the terms of its transformations.
Histories are written when someone thinks that other people should learn or rediscover something. In
Nehru’s case, he thought that Indian needed to be discovered by Indians a new.

Histories are written when one feels the existence at the point of intersection of the timeless in time,
when one feels that the present had acquired the immobility and the unchangeableness of the past,
when one feels the domination of the present. Histories are written because we want to change the
views of someone on the past. In Nehru’s case, he wanted to change the way in which Indians looked
upon their past. Also, Nehru made it very clear by saying” The roots of the present lay in the past and so
I made the voyages of discovery with the past ever seeking a clue in it, if any such existed to the
understanding of the present.” why history is written.

2.
How does the exhibition Discovery of India based on the book by Nehru, bring to us the charge and
ideas of this book through the displays at the exhibition - using elements from art and architecture?
Answer the question as you see it as a student of architecture and built environment yourself.

ANSWER:

The exhibition discovery of India based on the book written by Nehru during his time in jail is about the
history of India that explored the culture and history of our nation. This exhibition at the Nehru center in
Mumbai was built and design as a living memorial for Nehru.

The journey begins with the first cave dwellings represented by objects and replicas of the cavemen's
habitat. Paintings on the walls and realistic human figures were used to create a believable image from
this era. The exhibition shows how early humans used available resources by wearing animal skin as
clothing and making clay pots as everyday objects. This exhibition shows a series of images and texts
about the Indus Valley civilization, which is one of the first known proofs of civilized life. It is the origin of
the settlements and the end of the nomadic way of life of the peoples.

Civilizations such as their infrastructure, architecture, and development of commercial systems through
currency, transportation, etc. As the exhibition progresses, it can be seen that the parts are structured
both historically and architecturally. The scale remakes of columns, columns, and domes and the careful
detail of them allow the viewer to experience the architecture of that time. Part of the exhibition sheds
light on the awakening and spread of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent through narration in the form
of images, carvings, paintings, and objects. A miniature replica of the early school called Gurukul is also
seen. This kind of visual representation makes it easier for even children to understand the history,
culture and diversity of India from an early age and visually absorb it

The words of Nehru “the roots of the present lay in the past and so I made the voyages of discovery with
the past ever seeking a clue in it, if any such existed to the understanding of the present.” The thought
to establish a relationship between India’s past and present. To experience the richness of culture, glory
of past and the achievements of each age and era. If the past had the tendency to become present, then
present can also go back to past.

This exhibition shows diverse cultures and how different people and races come into contact with each
other, the migration of Aryans, Ramayana, and Mahabharata, the spread of Buddhism Some images that
show the architectural forms of temples in south India and the thought put into it to show the richness
of their culture and importance that was given to Islamic architecture at that time. Showing India’s
struggle for independence from Britishers and the influence of political leaders and freedom fighters and
the quit India movement. This exhibition is the combination of both history and architecture where the
architecture is inspired by the event that took place at the time. In some instances, it even shows the
cultural and political aspects that took place while fighting for freedom. This exhibition is the
interpretation of how Nehru sees India.