The Story of a Great Chinese Painter

This is the story of a painter named WU DAOZI who lived in the eighth century in China. He lost his parents at a very early age but by dint of sheer hard work and talent he earned a good reputation for himself at a young age of 20. When the Tang emperor Xuangzong came to know about him, he invited him to become an imperial painter in the court.

Wu was a man of open mind and liberal ideas. He had lived a life that was free from restrictions till then. Now as an imperial painter he could create a work only according to the desires of the emperor. Inspite of the restrictions he painted many great works of art-- about 300 murals and 100 scrolls.

One day the emperor asked him to create a painting to decorate the palace walls. Wu put his heart and soul in the work to create a landscape painting. When the king saw it, he was very impressed. He started appreciating the mountains, river and the other features of the landscape. However the painter interrupted and said, "Look Sire, at the cave that lies at the foot of the mountain. A spirit lives in this cave." After that he clapped his hands and the door of the cave in the painting opened. He further said, " The inside is so splendid! I wanted to show you the way." Then the painter entered the cave and the door closed behind him. Before the astonished emperor could say anything, the painting, the brush , everything had vanished along with the painter. WU DAOZI was never seen again in this world.

Sources: 

1. Nathalie Trouveroy, Landscape of the Soul, Hornbill, NCERT, 
2. India; http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_artqa/2005-  12/27/content_77521_2.htm

Aganiparv: Shantiniketan

Agani Parv Shantiniketan(अग्नि पर्व शान्तिनिकेतन) is the Hindi translation of a book written by a Hungarian author named ROZSA who lived in India between 1929 and 1932. The book is in the form of a diary which she wrote when she had lived with her husband in Shantiniketan during those years.

The husband had been working there on an assignment of teaching and she, as someone coming from a European country, was observing the environment and activities of Shantiniketan and India with wonder and jotting down the observations in the pages of her diary. She had also travelled the other parts of India like Jammu & Kashmir etc. during that period.

This was the period when the Freedom Movement in India was at its peak. Gandhi had led Salt satyagraha while Nehru was emerging as a national leader. Gandhi and Ravindranath were in regular touch. They also had their differences on various issues of national & international importance. It was also the time when literary and cultural resurgence was taking a concrete shape in Bengal with Ravindranath's Shantiniketan in the driving seat.

The book touches upon all these issues and activities and I am looking forward to reading it. It can also serve as a good source of history. I must thank Prof. Namvar Singh, an eminent critic of Hindi literature, who introduced this to me through his regular Book Review programme that comes on DD every Monday morning.