Bhubaneswar’s past has been housed inside a small room with a balcony overlooking Bindusagar lake in city’s Old Town area. As part of the Bhubaneswar Art Trail project, artists Ramahari Jena, Ramakanta Samantray and Sailen Routray, have presented the city’s past and present through the perspectives of outsiders in their temporary studio.
In this project, history has been revisited through photographs clicked by historians and research scholars both from India and abroad. The trio felt that Bhubaneswar had been a city of outsiders; successive waves of immigrants had constantly remade the city. “A key ‘outsider in this respect is Odia politician and litterateur Harekrushna Mahatab, who was instrumental in making Bhubaneswar the new capital of Odisha, and played an important role in its planning process,” Ramahari Jena said.
The artists took references from the writings of Mahatab. Similarly, most of the photographs on display are from the 19th century Bengali Indologist Rajendralal Mitra. In the winter of 1868-69, exactly 150 years ago, Rajendralal Mitra led a team of modellers and moulders to document the ancient sculptural and architectural heritage of Odisha. The documentation of this work was later produced in the two-volume ‘Antiquities of Orissa’, published in 1875 and 1880. These were profusely illustrated with lithographs and photographs, and contain the first extensive visual representations of Bhubaneswar’s architecture and sculptures. Several photographs displayed in the studio are from Rajendralal’s book ‘Seductions of the Odishan antiquities.’ The viewers get to witness the old images of Papanasini Tank, Lion’s Gate of Lingaraj Temple, Parsurameswar Temple, Jameswar Temple, Siddeshwar temple among others. These photographs had been clicked in 1868.
Taking the old collection as a vantage point, artist Ramahari created a history of the present times. He clicked photographs of the same places in 2018 from the same angles. He juxtaposed older images from 19th and 20th centuries, with contemporary photographs of the same spaces.
At the centre of this project space, there is an installation symbolising the interior of temples in the city. There's an earthen jar kept at the centre. The jar has been filled with water. "The water in the jar is a symbol of the holy water of the temple city. Pilgrims used to visit the city to collect the holy water from the water bodies here. They believed the water could cure them of all ailments," the artist explained.
The project also features the images captured by Cora Du Bois, an American scholar from University of Harvard. She had led a major research project on urbanisation and social change in Bhubaneswar, that lasted for eleven years between
1962 to 1973. Eight American and three Indian students completed their PhD theses based on work
done under this project.
The doctoral projects on Bhubaneswar ranged from a study of monks and monasteries in Old Town to an
enquiry into family organisation and child rearing. Most of the PhD dissertations in this project resulted in books and some of the students went on to become pioneers in their fields. For instance, James Freeman became a leading scholar in using life histories in ethnographic research.
One of the most interesting images clicked by Freeman, as showcased in the project, is of the 11th Century Bharati Mutt. " The Mutts were built to provide shelter pilgrims visiting Bhubaneswar and Puri. There are five Mutts around Lingaraj temple. This is one of the oldest mutts in the city. Interestingly, the deity of the Mutt is Kamakhya Devi (an image similar to the one found at Kamakhya temple in Guwahati. But, here no non-vegeterian food items are offered to the deity," the artist said, who along with his team members had interacted with several residents of the Old Town for their research work on the city.
The trio had also recorded interviews of the residents, which would be showcased in a separate exhibition.