by Usha Bande

excerpt:

Spectrum, India Tribune

In colonial India, calendar art was not an indigenous popular art form but a hybrid style produced for British patrons and the Anglicised Indian elite. It denoted the westernisation of taste of the bourgeois Indians and the modification of a foreign medium to suit the Indian style. The credit for popularising calendar art and taking his paintings to the masses goes to Ravi Varma (1848-1906), the painter-artist from the royal household of the Travancore state of Kerala. An artist par excellence, Ravi Varma was the first Indian painter to master the technique of western oil painting. He also set up one of the earliest lithographic presses in India. These presses reproduced Varma’s mythological paintings by the thousands. These reproductions reached Indian homes across the vast span of the land but at a massive cost to his art.

Some of the early calendars demonstrate his graceful portraits of goddess Lakshmi, the lithe Shakuntala, the beautiful Damayanti and the harassed Sahirhandri hiding her eyes from the gaze of Keechak. But unfortunately, the paintings became the objects of the erotic gaze and his art became synonymous with kitsch. During the freedom struggle, the common motifs were of mother India and the traditionally accepted mother-son duo of Yashoda-Krishna.

Calendar representation has undergone rapid change over the years. It is now a popular art form as well as an advertising medium of sorts. Apart from religious icons and mythological figures, new and more patriotic and secular themes are displayed on calendars. Large establishments like banks, insurance corporations, big corporate houses and airways, and even central and state governments have entered the field. Though religious themes are still in popular demand, depictions of Indian textiles, folk arts and crafts, and places of tourist interest are also gaining ground.

During the 60s, popular calendar displays pertained to the slogan Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan. Pictures of farmers and lush green fields formed the foreground or there was the Army in action with Patton tanks in the backdrop. Portrayals of dams and some industrial establishments and other sites of progress were also trendy. The secular topics present themes of unity and the equality of all religions. To emphasise this theme, some calendars portray men and women wearing different state costumes or people with different religious affiliations standing within a map of India with a lamp burning in the middle. The lamp is symbolic and may well refer to Cardinal Newman’s famous poem, so liked by Gandhiji, “Lead Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom.”

Lavish Magnolia Campbellii of the Himalayas is just one of the jewels in her crown…..

Campbell’s Magnolia (Magnolia campbellii) is a species of Magnolia that grows in sheltered valleys in the Himalaya from eastern Nepal, Sikkim and Assam east to southwestern China (southern Xizang, Yunnan, southern Sichuan) and south to northern Myanmar.

It is a medium-sized to large deciduous tree growing to 30 m, rarely to 45 m, tall, with smooth grey bark. The leaves are 10-23 cm (rarely to 33 cm) long and 4.5-10 cm (rarely to 14 cm) broad, fuzzy underneath and with an acute apex. The flowers are very large, 15-25 cm (rarely 35 cm) diameter, with 12-16 tepals, which vary from white to dark pink. They appear very early, before the leaves, opening from late winter to early spring. After opening, the innermost tepals remain erect while the others spread widely. This arrangement may shelter the stamens and stigmas from rain, snow, and other harsh environmental conditions common during their very early flowering time period.

There are two varieties:

• Magnolia campbellii var. campbellii. Western part of the species’ range, in the Himalaya. Shoots and flower stalks thinly hairy.
• Magnolia campbellii var. mollicomata. Eastern part of the species’ range, in Yunnan and surrounding areas. Shoots more densely hairy, flower stalks thickly felted.

[edit] Cultivation

It is grown as an ornamental tree for its spectacular flowers, though successful flowering is limited to mild areas with no late spring frosts; var. mollicomata flowers slightly later and is less likely to have its flowers frost-damaged. Young trees take a long time to reach flowering age and need deep, moist soil and a mild, sheltered site. Several cultivars have been named, including ‘Alba’ (white flowers), ‘Charles Raffil’ (bright purple-pink flowers; starts flowering on younger trees), and ‘Strybing White’ (white flowers). A number of hybrids with other Magnolias have also been developed.