Painting is one of the most delicate forms of art giving expression to human thoughts and feelings through the media of line and color.
Below are some of the eminent mural paintings of Ancient and Medieval India.
|
Era
|
Name
of the Site
|
Characteristics
|
|
Ancient India
|
·
Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra
·
Bagh caves, Madhya Pradesh
·
Badami caves, Karnataka
·
Sittannavasal, Tamil Nadu
|
·
Jatakas, collection of stories, recording the previous births of
the Lord Buddha.
·
Principal characters in heroic proportions.
·
Stories illustrated are continuous and elaborate.
·
Religious painting of Brahma, Shiva, etc.,
·
Ceiling Decoration with flora and fauna.
|
|
Medieval India
|
Ellora Caves , Maharashtra
|
·
Epitome of Indian rock-cut architecture
·
Hindu, Buddhist and Jain temples
·
Rectangular panels with thick borders.
·
Figures represent twist of the head, painted angular bents of
the arms, the concave curve of the close limbs,the sharp projected nose and
the long drawn open eyes
·
Fresco- secco method of painting
|
|
Medieval India
|
Rajarajeshwara temple, Tanjore,
Tamil Nadu
|
·
Figures are full of movement and throbbing with vitality
(Dancers)
·
Portray Shiva in action, destroying demonic forts, dancing etc.
·
Done in a fresco method over the surface of the rock.
|
|
Late Medieval painting
|
Veerabhadra Temple, Andhra Pradesh
|
·
Paintings are pressed within broad friezes and illustrate
Shivaite and secular themes
·
Two-dimensional painting
·
Fresco-secco method of painting
|
Common Characteristics
·
Most of the colors’ were
locally available.
·
Brushes were made up
from the hair of animals, such as goat, camel, mongoose, etc.
·
The principal colors’ in
use were red ochre, vivid red (vermilion), yellow ochre, indigo blue, lapis
lazuli, lamp black (Kajjal), chalk white, terraverte and green.
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
To
all the people who were hopeful that we will have a constitutional provision to
improve the position of women in our democracy, things are looking a bit gloomy
for now. When the Women's reservation bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha amid
trans-party cooperation, Sonia Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj and Brinda Karat coming
together to get justice for womanhood, there was light at the end of the
tunnel.Women have never had such dominating presence in the echelons of power
with a President, Opposition Leader, the Guiding force behind the ruling party
and more from the weaker sex. With maverick politicians in the regional parties
out in the open protesting the bill in its original form and recommending
watering down amendments, the bill looks a distant dream.
The
history of women's reservation dates back to the Panchayati Raj Act of 1992
which provides for 33% reservation in local self-governance. Then the Deva
Gowda Govt in 1996 proposed women’s reservation in a similar form, which was
followed by another ambitious attempt by IK Gujaral which was all stalled at
its birth. The women’s reservation bill proposes to provide reservation of 33 %
in the parliament, state legislature and local bodies. The reserved seats for
women will be rotated in every two terms and the SC/ST reservation will mandate
33 % reservation for women within its fold. The proposal is only for a pilot
period of 15 years.
Why
do we need women’s reservation? The arguments for and against are various but
one aspect that can be quiet compelling is our relative performance with regard
to gender empowerment. You will be surprised to hear that women in India is far
behind their equals in Pakistan and Bangladesh and is ahead of only countries
like Yemen and Saudi Arabia. We consider ourselves modern when the representation
of women in the parliament, in higher education, in the corporate sector is
abysmal. The number of women who die during pregnancy and girls who do not
complete schooling is alarming.
So
is reservation a panacea to all the ills that the women in the country is
suffering from, not likely but it could be a good start. Better representation
will pave way for more sensible law making, more empowerment and more
development to the country. But there are inherent flaws in the current
proposal which is ambiguous in terms of reservation for women from backward
classes; it will lead to proxy candidates in the form of politician’s kith and
kin contesting. The proposal to rotate seats after two terms will not let to
develop a relationship between the candidate and the constituency. The fate of
the pilot period could be similar to the 10 year threshold kept for SC/ST
reservation which continues even today.
Another
alternative to the cumbersome Women’s reservation bill is to bring changes in
the people representation act making it compulsory of political parties to
yield 33% percentage of its candidate, women to maintain the party’s
registration. There has to be some amendments to the structure of the houses as
the current strength of 545 members in the parliament is based on the 1971
population which is actually half of the current population. More
representation will let us yield more people which will to certain extend
thwart the opposition put forward by the dissidents. The opposition is mainly
arising out of fear of losing sitting seats and lack of future opportunities to
contest.
Let’s
further look at the case of Pakistan, they have reserved 60 seats for women in
the 360-member National Assembly and 17 in the 100-member Senate with a view to
empower women. According to a report, 42 percent of private member bills, 27
percent of questions and 24 percent of resolutions in parliament came from
women parliamentarians. If this can happen in the socially medieval (as
perceived by most of us) so what’s stopping us from taking the plunge.
At
least like what someone said “If all the countries in the world were ruled by
women, we wouldn't have any war, just a bunch of countries who don't speak to
each other” It might lead to an end of the boisterous cacophony and all the
drama prevalent in our parliament.
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