Long time ago, while we were visiting a temple in Karnataka, I was sad to see that the temple exterior had been painted carelessly with bright colourful paint without paying attention to highlighting the features in the art. This seemed like murder of the art form, of the work the earlier builders would have put in to introduce the features and perhaps say a story. The building was surely looking new but gross. It would be like painting the Taj Mahal with white colour just because the marble is losing its shine. This is not a unique story. though.
All across the country we can find many such examples. Sometimes it is our ignorance – the temple visitors, temple administration themselves are not aware about the history and the architecture of the temple and sometimes it is neglect where knowingly we destroy the past because maintaining it will need immense hard work. But who cares! All we are busy with is visiting the temple, taking the darshan and moving on to the next task. To some extent, I am guilty of the same and it is only my recent study of the history of the temples that have opened my eyes. Slightly late, because I am stuck in the UK and it will be a while before I go back to see each of the temples and appreciate its art form. Until then my research continues…But if you are local and in a position to visit the temples, please take some time to be more aware of this aspect.
One such victim of ignorance and neglect is Kavikala. Kavikala is an ancient and unique form of art found in temples and old buildings built along the Konkan coast. The key ingredient in it is the ochre (called Kaavi in Kannada/Konkani. I remember my grandmother saying kaavi banna pudve means ochre-colored towel) paste made out of the local laterite soil which is rich in iron. In recent years this art form has rapidly disappeared. The old buildings that have been renovated have used modern painting by commercial builders. Fortunately, the only book that possibly details the art form Kavikala by Shri Krishnanand Kamat is available here to read. The kamat website has detailed information to know more about this art.
A must watch documentary explaining the struggles of the artists and the temple authorities. It all comes down to financial support in the end.
The beauty of this art form lies in its minimalism – only two colours -a white background and the ochre design. And yet using these two colours artists have managed to depict very beautiful scenes from the mythologies. The concept of Kavikala is similar to what we use in today’s kids scratch art books. First a white background is created and then an ochre layer on it. Then the scratchings are done to bring out the two colours into a design. You can see an example of it below.
However a few artists have tried to retain this art form. One among them is Artist Veena Srinivas in Mangalore. You can see some of her works and interview here.
What is it that we can do to retain this art form? How can we make sure our current and future generation are aware of this heritage?