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Lord Shiva leaves Americans fascinated, mystified, confused, amused and delighted

Lord Shiva is sweeping across the United States in all his animal, human and abstract forms leaving Americans fascinated, mystified, confused, horrified, amused and, in the end, delighted. Lee Sheridan
November 18, 2013
ISSUE DATE: July 31, 1981
UPDATED: October 15, 2014 15:03 IST 

The largest and most important exhibition of Indian art ever shown in the US, 'Manifestations of Shiva', opened earlier this year at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Two hundred objects assembled from 72 private and museum collections in India, Nepal, the US, Canada and Europe are bringing Americans a greater understanding of India's culture and giving them a feeling for one of mankind's most archaic and perennial concepts of the divine.

The exhibition, spanning 2,000 years of Hindu artistic expression, is extraordinary by any standards, but it is especially remarkable for being the work of one woman - the diminutive, 85-year-old curator of Philadelphia's Museum of Art, Dr Stella Kramrisch - who has put 10 years of research and planning into the show.

Dr Kramrisch, whose lifetime of scholarship devoted to Indian art was recently recognised with an honorary doctorate of literature from Vishwa Bharati University, taught in India for 30 years.

Objective: The Austrian-born scholar arrived in 1920 to teach at Tagore's Shantiniketan after receiving her Ph.D. in art history from the University of Vienna with a further year of study at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.

In 1923 she was invited to teach at the University of Calcutta where she remained for 27 years as a professor of Indian art. During this time she also helped establish Calcutta's Asutosh Museum and, with Abanindranath Tagore, edited the Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art.  In 1950 she joined the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia as professor of South Asian art. She became professor of Indian art at the New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, and curator of the institute's museum in 1964.

Having already offered the world a vast and varied contribution as writer, scholar and teacher, what was it that impelled Dr Kramrisch to persevere for so many years in the stupendous task of assembling and presenting 'Manifestation of Shiva'? "Shiva himself had been in my mind for a very long time," she said. "Then came the desire to tell people about him and to clarify Shiva for myself in words." A 10th century bronze Nataraja
Satisfied: The first step was her book, The Presence of Shiva (550 pages, 32 illustrations), a comprehensive investigation into the god's meaning, origin and nature, published earlier this year.

The book was the conceptual basis of the exhibition. In organising the exhibition Dr Kramrisch explained that her objective was "to approach Indian art as a visual form of the realisation of religious experience". She intended the exhibition to "move people and prompt them to inquire what it is that moves them, and this will lead them to an understanding and realisation of Shiva."

"I am happy to say that it came out exactly as I wanted," Dr Kramrisch said. "The exhibition shows the facets of Shiva and the extraordinary genius of the artists over all of India throughout all the ages who have conveyed all of the aspects of Shiva in their work."

Visitors enter the exhibition through a gallery of late 17th, 18th and early 19th century paintings, predominantly from Rajasthan and the Punjab hills, selected to convey the multiplicity and diversity of Shiva's forms.

Dominating the entrance to the sculpture gallery are seven monumental lingas shaded by peepul trees, and glowing in their time-enriched tones of pink and red sandstone, black and green chlorite. Inside, soft, subtle lighting simulates the reverent feeling of a temple interior.

Educative: But it is much more than a display, however grand. More than two years ago the museum began planning numerous programmes to supplement the effort and turn it into an all-out, all-round effort at cultural education.

Among the programmes produced was an hour long documentary filmed in India by Malcolm Leigh and an audio tour written by the museum education department's Margery Seiger. Her instructive narration emanates as if by magic from a sophisticated new electronic device that plays the relevant information when visitors hold it in front of selected paintings and sculptures as they walk through the galleries.

The museum has published two books: Dr Kramrisch's handsomely illustrated and fully documented catalogue and Ways to Shiva by Joseph M. Dye, a large format book with 57 colour photographs.

Seventeen lectures by the world's leading scholars of Indian art and religion are being presented and 10 performances by famous Indian dancers, singers and musicians are scheduled to run during the exhibition. On a scholarly level, selected observers were invited to a week-long symposium on "The Nature of Religious Imagery" conducted by the South Asia Regional Studies Department of the University of Pennsylvania.

Indian panelists were N.P. Joshi, former director of the State Museum, Lucknow; Debala Mitra, additional director-general, Archaeological Survey of India; U.P. Shah, former deputy director, Oriental Institute, Baroda, and C. Sivaramamurti, former director, National Museum. Kuchipudi dancer performing at India Day celebrations: A cultural education
Several Fields: But the museum is determined to see that Shiva should not simply wait for people to come to him; with missionary zeal it is reaching out through cooperative programmes with other institutions to interest the entire city.

The Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, the Franklin Institute of Science Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum are presenting a range of exhibitions and activities designed to introduce Americans to the geography, wildlife, astronomy, art, literature and religious life of India.

The Please Touch Museum exhibition, "India: Ganesha's Children", gave preschool children and their families an opportunity to explore an Indian temple environment; the Philadelphia Zoo held a workshop for five-and six-year-olds and the City Library presented "The Art of Indian Manuscripts: An Exhibition of Miniatures, Bound Manuscripts and Paintings from India" and conducted Indian story hours for children.

The museum also coordinated in-school study programmes reaching more than 10,000 students in Philadelphia schools. Suitcases filled with common Indian objects circulated from school to school.

Good Response: The most elaborate and comprehensive special event was India Day, celebrated on the parkway outside the museum. Throngs of visitors came to ride an elephant or camel, have their faces painted like a Kathakali dancer, try their hands at Rangoli painting or apply mehndi and see the wandering fire jugglers amidst an Indian-style bazaar that offered food, spices, saris and dresses.

India Day attracted 20,000 people. A few days later 25,000 baseball fans turned out to see the New York Yankees play the Baltimore Orioles-which is not at all surprising, but when did 20,000 ever attend a museum cultural event?

The number of visitors to the exhibition itself has exceeded 80,000. Many of the museum-goers were of Indian origin. Asked if Philadelphia has a very large Indian community, a museum official said, "We are finding out that we do. And many of them are becoming members of the museum." Indian Americans have responded with more than words. Said Dr Kramrisch: "I have been touched to see fresh flowers or grains of rice in the hands of one or another of the images." Elephant rides outside the Philadelphia Museum : A novel experience
Modest: The exhibition will travel through the US for more than a year; after Philadelphia it moves to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, then the Seattle Art Museum and finally the Los Angeles County Museum.

The show is being funded by the US Government's National Endowment for the Humanities, two private foundations and the Indo-US Subcommission on Education and Culture. Transportation of the staff and art objects is being done free by Air-India.

The preview opening of the exhibition was attended by a number of distinguished Indians: the Ambassador to the US, K.R. Narayan; Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, M. Nasrullah and G. Parthasarathi, co-chairman of the Indo-US commission.

At the heart of the entire accomplishment is Dr Kramrisch. Deprecating any suggestion that she deserves all the praise being accorded her, she speaks of the many others-Indian scholars, Indian staff, the carpenters and electricians-who have worked together in perfect harmony. "It must have been like this when the great temples were built in India-everyone straining to do his best in order to serve one common goal."
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