A demon asur nonchalantly twirling a human skull and the blade that took it; the buffalo-headed monster Mahisasur, and his nemesis, the half-man, half-lion Narsimha; a pair of gopis, or milkmaids, waving peacock feathers to catch a polyamorous god's eye; the naked and bloodthirsty goddess Kali, with her many arms and garland of skulls-the dramatis personae of the Hindu cosmos is famously colourful and many-headed. But the selection of wild incarnations stalking the pages of Charles Fréger's book of portraits Aam Aastha offers a glimpse of a more startling, and perhaps deeper, paganism than the narrowing visual imagination of mainstream Hindu iconography proliferating in India today.
While modern Hindu nationalism fosters a state-sponsored religious aesthetic increasingly focussed on gigantic temples and statues, Charles Fréger's meticulously composed images of the 'little traditions' of religious devotion staged by costumed 'folk' artists from more than 60 local cultures across the country, are both strikingly beautiful and quietly unsettling.
Fréger has, it would be fair to say, something of an obsession with ritual costumed performance, or masquerades. He has been working on related themes since at least 2010, in a beguiling series of books including Wilder Mann, on mythic, feral characters of European cultures, Yokainoshima on traditional festival costumes of rural Japan, and Cimarron, on the ritual costumes and characters assumed by descendants of African slaves in the Americas.
Despite the resonance of these earlier projects, Fréger told me that Aam Aastha (which translates as 'common devotions') was "more ambitious" because it focussed on masquerades and dances linked to religion. "This is what distinguishes it from my other projects right from the start," he said. "Here, we depict a wide variety of representations, often tribal, of Buddhist and Hindu deities."
Denne historien er fra May 2024-utgaven av Reader's Digest India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra May 2024-utgaven av Reader's Digest India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Calendar Girls
After Molly Baker’s husband died suddenly, her friends organized a year’s worth of support
THE GREAT WILDEBEEST MIGRATION
It's a spectacular sight when countless ruminants cross the Serengeti in search of greener pastures
Soumitra Chatterjee's Tryst with Destiny
The encounter that led a budding actor to a legendary filmmaker, and sparked an iconic creative partnership during the golden age of Bengali cinema
Frozen in Time
The life and work of Vittorio Sella, a pioneer of early mountain photography and the man behind some of the very first images of the Himalayas
HALLUCINATIONS
There was a monkey perched on the IV drip stand to the right of my hospital bed. It scowled at me, but I wasn’t afraid: A brief simian visit was part of my daily routine. I never questioned why there was a monkey in the hospital. I wasn’t lucid enough to recognize that my mind was playing tricks on me.
Music in the Air
Cuba is bursting with sound, and each region moves to its own defining rhythm
SHOULD YOU TRY A DETOX TREATMENT?
It's a popular new-year health habit. But science doesn't support it
Ringing True
He thought his late parents' wedding bands were gone forever
14,000-FOOT MIRACLE
The skydiver fully expected to die when her parachute failed to open. Instead, she's writing the next chapter of her life
I SURVIVED!
THREE UNUSUAL MEDICAL EMERGENCIES, AS TOLD BY THE PEOPLE WHO NEARLY DIED FROM THEM
