The World in a Boond- Drop

Heritage Travel Story with Navina Jafa

D0- Boond (2 drops) in Ceramic – Artist Rajeev Ranjan

This week’s story of traveling India is about the motif of ‘boond’ a drop of water. Water as nature lends itself to the imagination of artists and evokes a range of human emotions. The water drop is a world in itself. It assumes different forms as dew (Tushar in Sanskrit, Shabnam in Urdu), like tears, the freezing of the drop as a pearl, and the link of water with the moon and the planet Venus. The world of the water drop represents intuition and imagination. Philosophically, the human mind is compared to the Lotus, which must remain detached from its illusionary surroundings just as the Lotus does its world of water and droplets in which it grows.

**Light Reflecting the World in a Dewdrop**

Literature, Philosophy, and Myths: Dew Drop: Tushaar/Shabnam

The world in a drop carries the possibilities from stillness to a storm, from a ‘moment’ to a lifetime. As ‘Tushar, the dewdrops make the garland of the Goddess of Learning – Saraswati. Comments Sage Shankara in his work Vivekchoodamani, expresses that Consciousness is everywhere but requires the mind to create the experience similar to how the sunlight is everywhere but gets reflected only in tiny water droplets.

In Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddh ( enlightened nature) as the moon is reflected in countless dewdrops; and the Buddha says, “Life is no more than a dewdrop balancing on the end of a blade of grass.”

**Buddha – Enlightened Nature Reflected in Drops**

An intriguing (Story) gaathaa ( circle of mythical stories) in the Shivapurana (2/2/21) refers to the dewdrop. On stepping into the world of Lord Shiva, Kama (the cupid of Indian mythology) encounters a carpet of dewdrops in the spring season. The water evaporates in the warmth of the Sun rays, sending the vapors to the heart of men and women, rejuvenating them with energies of hope and love.

Painting: Phenomenon of ‘Drops’

**‘Drops’ as Pearls in Jwellery – Ajanta Cave Paintings**

An approximately dated 6th c is a text called Vishnudharmottara in which a section on painting Chitrasutra describes a technique called’ Binduja’ employing dotting. The representation is brilliantly presented in the jewellery of the dreamy eyes beauties in the Ajanta Painting. Here, the dot technique assumes the crystalized form of pearls symbol of emotions and wisdom gained through experience.

**Basholi- Miniature Painting- The Swan drinking waterdrops**

The swan representing beauty and a discerning mind, drinking drops of water from the wet hair is replete in the symbolism of sensuality; after all, the ‘drop’ does come to be linked with the planet Venus.

Teardrop on a Lotus Leaf

Abindranath Tagore (1871-1951), an artist of the ‘Indian Society of Oriental Art’ in Bengal, advocated Swadeshi values in Indian art combining the technique with the delicacy and dream-like quality of the Japanese ‘wash’ and the Chinese Ink. The lines by Urdu poet Bashir Badr captures the essence, asserting the freedom of artistic expression that goes beyond man-made boundaries.

**Teardrops on a Lotus Leaf – Abindranath Tagore**

shabnam ke aañsū phuul par ye to vahī qissa huā

āñkheñ mirī bhīgī huī chehra tirā utrā huā – Bashir Badr

The story is the of teardrops on dew, and They are like my wet eyes on your sad face.

Sculpture: The tear ‘drop’ in Indian Art heritage gains another fascinating artistic expression in a Se Cathedral Christian Church sculpture in Old Goa. During the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, his mother Mary was not there. However, in the crucifixion sculpture in the church, Mary Christ’s mother is depicted crying at the suffering and death of her son.

**Teardrops in Mother Mary’s Eyes – Se Cathedral – North Goa**

Dance: In a pure dance composition in Kathak dance taught by Pandit Birju Maharaj, following which the abstract essence of the flowing drop expands in different rhythms of movement as a phenomenon influx in small footwork defined by a string of abstract sounding syllables capturing the direction of the ‘drop.’

Bood – Drops in Kathak Dance – Imagined – Dancer Navina Jafa

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