A Perfect Invocation that Evoked the Essence of Essence

For decades, BN Goswamy gently held our finger, and walked in search of an 'essence of essence... a pure bliss

- Amrit Gangar

Silent in the field

A butterfly was flying

Then it fell asleep

BRIJINDER Nath Goswamy walked gently, talked gently, silently! When he bid adieu to our world on the morning of November 17, 2023, the sannata (silence) befell the universe of art, its history and the ways of its interpretation. At ninety, his presence was precious and prescient. He left us, as if, while listening to Kumar Gandharva's self-composed bandish in raag Shuddha Shyam-silent in the field:

मोय बुलायके पूछो ना रे

अजब रीत तेरो हैगा रे ||

समझ ना परे उलझायो रे

का कसूर मेरो हैगा रे ||

(Call me and at least enquire about me; strange are your ways, instead of making things easier, you complicate them, what is my fault?)

In Amit Dutta's extraordinary short film The Museum of Imagination: A Portrait in Absentia (2012, 20 minutes) on Goswamy, we see him sitting in solitude listening to the great vocalist he was long fond of. Though I was fortunate to have met the legendary art historian in person, listening to his erudite and yet accessible speeches a couple of times, and through reading of his books, my 'direct' and 'intimate' contact with him has been through Dutta's two films besides Nainsukh (2010, 90 minutes). Among the two films, one is already referred to above, and another is Field-Trip (2013, 22 minutes); their reference is intended.

Goswamy incessantly and rigorously prodded the 'process' and pursued it. His quest was to capture the 'essence of essence'. In the film The Museum of Imagination, we see pages from a book with paintings on one side and their interpretations on the other. Among several examples, one provoked the title of my homage to the great scholar Goswamy, who describes the painting: