VISUAL PHENOMENOLOGY

Abstract

In a symphony of colors and compositional elements, Janamsakhi illustrations record the life of the founder, Guru Nanak (1469-1539). This paper explores the set of 41 paintings from the nineteenth century in the permanent Kapany Collection at the Asian Arts Museum. My objective is to gain some sense of the reception of the Sikh Guru's images in a western cosmopolitan space. After all does the seeing-in not depend upon personal proclivities, cultural assumptions, social practices, and historical associations? ‘Through looking at paintings we can learn to step outside the mode of being that is ours and to open ourselves to modes of being that are other’ (Nigel Wentworth, The Phenomenology of Painting, 2004, 246). Indeed by opening up a uniquely Sikh spiritual and aesthetic horizon to its viewers, the Janamsakhi illustrations at the Asian Arts Museum make a meaningful contribution to pluralism. Ultimately, what is the function of their visual phenomenology in our global society? How does it promote familiarity among religions, races, and cultures? How does it impact the personal and collective identity of the Sikhs?

Notes

1 # 41 is missing at the AAM. I am grateful to Ms Qamar Adamjee, and her colleagues Ms Cristina Lichauco and Mr Jeff Durham, for showing me the 40 paintings from the Kapany Unbound Set at the AAM.

2 The paintings from the Unbound Set reproduced in Goswamy and Smith (2006): Guru Nanak on his first day at school, 46; in carpenter Lalo's house, 54; in Kurukshetra, 92; asleep in Mecca, 88; in conversation with emperor Babur, 94; and the painting without him – that of Guru Angad, 98. They are all dated to 1755–1770.

3 Personal conversation with Ms Qamar Adamjee of the AAM

4 We do not have any firm historical documentation on Bhai Bala. As Sikh historians have pointed out, the early theologian and historian Bhai Gurdas does not mention Bhai Bala.

5 Actually, there are quite a few similarities with the B-40 illustrations. For details, see Singh (2013, 28–65).

6 Guru Nanak respectfully bowing to his brother-in-law Jairam (1998.58.5, figure 3) goes unnoticed by Professor Del Bonta:

The depiction of the meeting with this saint [Bhagat Kabir] is significant, because, although the young Nanak's halo is larger, it shows him deferring in namaskara to the older saint, an attitude that occurs nowhere else in the Unbound Set … . (1999, 63)

7 I have explored it in detail in Singh (2004, 284–302).

8 For details, see Singh (2013, 28–65).

9 Sultana's Dream by Rokeya Hossain was first published in 1905.

In the Sikh context, the Janamsakhi narrative takes place during Guru Nanak's visit to Bengal, and Hossain herself was Bengali, therefore the possibility of a common literary source. Sultana's Dream is an entirely positive narrative about women taking over all spheres of life with the men sitting in purdah.