Lalit Gupta
Appearing in Jammu after a long hiatus, Subhash Razdan has certainly sprung a surprise with his works that recently were on show at Rinchin bZangpo Art Gallery, University of Jammu. Unlike contemporary artists in the country in perpetual struggle with and against the norms of a hegemonic Western pattern of modernity, Subhash Razdan, moved by internal inspirations, has quietly taken the meditative route that locates his contemporary art practice in the local (Kashmiri) as well as pan-Indian imagery of Tantrik Art.
Razdan’s latest Tantric-inspired black and white drawings are abstract visual approximations of philosophical principles ingrained in the ritual practice of everyday life of Kashmir Pandit families. With the result in his works the ancient and the modern have come together in a fluid mix where an almost condition of classical music informs the sacred geometric visual rendering of the abstract principles.
For Razdan this artistic journey on the path already transversed by stalwarts modern artists since 1960s like Gulam Rasool Santosh, P T Reddy, who saw in Tantra the possibility of another Beginning, has been a sheer act of destiny. As few years back, he had never ever imagined that a divine intervention would bring him back from the world of commercial world of advertisement visualization and designing to have a brush with mystical continuum as envisaged in tantric philosophy and its cognate in terms of sacred geometry.
Looking at the unique turn of events which lead to the artistic churning of Subhash Razdan, one cannot but take resort to commonplace fact ingrained in everyday Hindu world view that ‘sanskaras’, to greater or lesser degree do get transmitted from one generations to another.
Linking his foray in world of images that seek to give ‘rupa’ to abstract principles of Naad, Subhash Razdan says that it was the spiritual countenance and unfailing daily ritual recitation of Brahamrupa Stotra followed by blowing of Shankha by his nonagenarian father Shri Amar Nath Razdan, which triggered a deep seated yet unarticulated stirrings in him. But when he got associated with Bharatiya Yoga Sansthan in New Delhi, to attend Yoga classes and later Pranayama exercises, the stirring fructified and the unique world of subtle experiences opened before him. Encouraged by guru at the Sansthan, who asked him to paint what he saw in his dream-wakeful state of mind, he took the wonderful path of exploring the subtle realm of ‘Naad Brahman’, says Razdan.
Born in 1952, Subhash Razdan grew up in Habba Kadal, Pushkar, Srinagar his basic education took place in Hindu Middle School, Zaindar Mohalla, and Hindu High School, Sathu Sheetal Nath, Srinagar. He actually grew up as an artist at a tender age under the guidance of late Girdhari Lal in Middle School and High School under late Radha Krishan Raina, a graduate of Shri Amar Singh Technical Institute, Srinagar.
After schooling he pursued non-medical studies at Amar Singh College, Srinagar. In 1972, he joined afternoon classes in Institute of Music & Fine Arts (IMFA), to hone his artistic skills. Later encouraged by teachers at the Institute, he joined Faculty of Fine Arts, M S University, Vadodara, for training in Applied Art and in 1979 completed post-graduation in Visualization.
Afterwards serving as Instructor Applied Arts, in IMFA, Jammu for nine years, he joined Kashmir University as lecturer in Media Studies in 1988. Only after year, in wake of migration of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in 1989, he moved to Delhi and got involved in the world of advertising.
Living almost 30 years away from parents and kith and kin settled in Jammu, the fast life style of Delhi was taken in stride by him as an inevitable consequence of his severance from the of roots. But underneath the mundane but hectic routine in the national capital there was always a deep seated yearning in Subhash Razdan for a substantial raison d’être fore his creativity and artistic expression.
Thus the chance encounter with abstract symbology of sacred Tantric geometry, emerged as just the right impetus that not only suited his silent and brooding countenance but opened a whole of world of unending artistic possibilities for him in visualizing myriad shades and hues of Naad Brahman.
To understand philosophical basis of Subhash Razdan’s imagery, it is important that the ‘Sahirdya’- the initiated spectator, to have some understanding of the Naad at different Levels of Consciousness, as espoused in ancient scriptures.
The various stages of the manifestation or the development of sound, right from the navel onwards, are known in Sanskrit as Para, Pashyanti, Madhyama and Vaikhari. Para is a soundless seed, as it were, the very possibility of the production of sound. Pashyanti is a little more pronounced. And the more intensified form is Madhyama; and the audible manifestation of it is Vaikhari. Often, these stages are identified, in the cosmic context, with the four metaphysical realities advanced in the Vedanta Philosophy, namely Brahma, Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha and Virat.
Chaman Lal, Ph.D, writing in the Razdan’s exhibition catalogue, opines that it is Pashyanti form of speech, that the artist, Subash Chandar Razdan visualizes in his works through dots and dashes, circles, triangles, squares on the canvas/paper with a tactile quality of the sacred geometrical figures. Brahmanda-the whole macrocosm of our thoughts and actions is a projection of these sound vibrations, which are Vedic in spirit and Agamic in nature, that prevail at different frequencies. Para is related to Vaani/speech is verily, the Supreme Speech. This is the innermost voice, hence the Bija of the Akshara, which exists within all of us. It is the inner vibration, the source of all sound. For an artist, the physical tongue ‘Pashyanti’ represents the intellectual consciousness, which is drawn through the brush strokes, based on the Madhyama — the mental consciousness, and Vaikhari is the end result through art works— the physical consciousness of Subhash Chander Razdan.
Razdan also incorporates at times his own writings in Kashmiri with drawing/paintings which allow his works to transform to the level of personalized yantras. Some of the expressions in original Kashmir and in English transaltion by the artists are: Akh OMkaar roopas roop aneekh gai, roop yi kiyah Bindu-roopa bovtham, osus chath moi kath ba niyandre, gath yi kiyah baavtham….(OM is one, but it got manifested in many forms. What about the Bindu – the eternal dot, which is to be shown to me. I was lost in my deep sleep, but you woke me up in the conscious state of mind.)
Saru kar Shuiny baav Shinyah praavak, adu saar pravak Sahasraar natsnavak, tati kati rozi Aham, SuHam pravak, Satchit aanand vati zeri zeer pravak….(Try to understand Void, you will go through Shunya. You will dance in the sahasraar where there is no place for ego. You will alone understand, what is Soham which is the Satchitanand.)
Naad gav Shabad zaav Shan(6) tarfan draav, Shunyas shro’ny gav Ro’ny-Damaan go’b gav, Shunyas lai karith khai(Rust) tsaj paansui, Dili-Aayeenas manz samith gai samaan…..(Through Naad evolved the World: moved to the six directions. Shunya absorbed in the eternal sound at the tinkling bells of my apron. The rust was over, my heart became a mirror to see my apparatuses got accumulated.)
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