Symbolism in Sikh Art Fakir Syed Aijazuddin

An exhibition is opening on September 18th at the Rubin Museum on Early Sikh Art and Devotion.
Here’s a blurb from the Rubin website on Early Sikh Art and Devotion

I Know No Stranger: Early Sikh Art and Devotion
September 18, 2006 through January 29, 2007
Sikhs live in the popular imagination—they are known for their courage and resolve, and for their striking appearance and distinctive dress. Less well known, however, are Sikh beliefs and ideals, and the roots of Sikh culture and art in the traditions of North India. This exhibition will present approximately 100 works from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century, including paintings, drawings, textiles, metalwork, and photographs that identify core Sikh beliefs and explore the plurality of Sikh cultural traditions.

To start off the festivties, Fakir Syed Aijazuddin spoke on Symbolism in Sikh Portaiture.

He was a pleasure to hear, he was articule, knowlegable, with an excellent slide show, that backed up what he was speaking on. He was also very respectful of Sikh culture by referring to Guru Nank, as Guru Nanak Dev Ji.

His family has had close associations with Sikhs, his ancestor being the royal physician or accountant at the Court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Lahore.

He began by saying Sikhism and Islam are young religions. William Archer was one of the first western artists painting Sikhs. Most of the early paintings were done in a minature style by local artists. Sobha Singh, a Sikh artist came on the scene later, and reinterpreted Sikh art.

Guru Nank was born in 1469, he was born in a time of conflict in India. He was a man of the world, an accountant by profession and also a guru, a teacher who had heard the voice of God.

Mohinder Singh Randhawa is a Sikh art collector, and Mr. Aijazuddin had learnt a lot from him. He said that even though Mr. Randhawa was clean shaven, he practised 2 more K’s already present in the Sikh faith Kindness and Knowledge.

He divided his lecture into four parts

1.Piety
2.Portraiture
3.Patronage
4.Punjabiyat as a continuos cultural phenomenon.

Piety was based on reverence in the Sikh faith for the ten gurus. The Janam Sakhis are the accounts of the events in Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s life. Each consisting of a series of separate incidents or chapters normally in chronological order, entitled sakhis or gosts. Completed in 1733 A.D. The sakhis were completed by Guru Gobind Singh Ji and were a testament to the new adherent joining the Sikh faith.
Paintings of Guru Nanak, Mardana and Bala

A portrait of Nanak and Mardana was painted by a Swiss artist Alain Spartan(?). Their was 50 years of spiritual iconography, some images of Guru Angad Das ji were made in Kashmir.

Mr. Aijazuddin, then narrated a story that I had heard from my grandmother, about Guru Nanak’s visit to Mecca. While he slept with his feet towards the Kabba, someone came to him and said he should change the direction of his feet, since it was disrespectful. His response was, is their any direction in which God does not exist. And then according to traditionalists, he moved his feet and the Kabba moved in the direction of his feet.

When Nanak saw the Muslims prayer five times he said let the first prayer be truth, the second honest living, the third for the good of all, the fourth an honest mind and the fifth the praise of the lord. He studied Islam deeply by travelling by foot through Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.

In some paintings Guru Nanak, is no different from a Muslim Sufi in meditation, with his deep mediation posture, and his string of prayer beads on his fingers. In one image, his shawl had inscriptions of the holy Kuran, while another section of the garment had verses from Japji Sahib.

Here is another story about Guru Nanak and how the Panja Sahib gurdwara came into being.



Under a shady cool tree, Guru Nanak and Bhai Mardana started reciting Kirtan, the devotees gathered together which annoyed Wali Qandhari but he was helpless. According to a legend, Bhai Mardana was sent three times to Wali Qandhari so that the former might quench his thirst. Wali Qandhari refused and even used harsh words for him. Despite all of this, Mardana still very politely stuck to his demand. The Wali ironically remarked : Why don't you ask your Master whom you serve? Mardana reached the holy presence of Guru in a miserable state and qouthed. "Oh lord ! I prefer to death to thirst but will not approach the Wali, the egoist." The true Lord said smilingly," Oh Bhai Mardana ! Repeat the Name of God, the Almighty; and drink the water to your heart's content." The Guru put aside a big piece of stone lying nearby, Where a pure fountain of water sprang up and began to flow endlessly. Bhai Mardana quenched his thirst and felt grateful to the Creater. On the other hand, the fountain of Wali Qandhari got dried up like vanishing of comforts and conveniences of an unfortunate fellow. On witnessing the wondrous act, the Wali in rage, threw a part of a mountain towards the Guru from the top of the hill. The true Lord halted the hurled stone with his hand. An indelibe mark of Guru's hand was inserted in the stone. Observing that miracle, the ego of Wali vanished and he became the Guru's fast devotee. Several attempts were made to deface the impression of the hand of the Guru but all of non avial and the mark remained for ever and ever. This holy and revered place is now known as Panja Sahib.

He then spoke about the Patiala school and Pahari Paintings, and how the use of Canopies were common to both. He then mentioned Radcliffe who divided the Gurus. Guru Angad was shown as a relative of Guru Ramdas. And Guru Arjun Singh was painted, dressed in Mughal finery, which was ironic, since he was killed by Mughal rulers.

Sikh gurus were never portrayed in stone sculptures, since they were against idol worship. There are however, Sikh coins with inscriptions and portraits of the gurus.

Portraiture

Balzar Solves (?) A flemish artist in 1799 depicted Sikhs as emasculated and poor, suffering people. Always dressed in blue and black, covered in a world of veils and tears!.

Guru Gobind Singh died in 1708.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh conquered and established his own empire. He was always depicted in profile. (Due to Small Pox which left him blind in one eye) He was post Mughal aristocracy. His empire was based on courtly grandeur, coupled with strong religious beliefs, tempered by secular spirit.


As a devout Sikh, Ranjit Singh saw his power as deriving from the Panth Khalsa . He did not wear the emblem of royalty on his turban, he never sat on his throne and when new coins were struck, they were in the name of Guru Nanak Dev ji and not himself. Yet he was a passionate secularist and when a courtier commented on this he reported to have said “God wanted me to look upon all religions with one eye, that is why he took away the light from the other.”

His wife Rani Jindan Kaur was depicted lying laguidly in portraits. This strong woman was able to achieve a lot in her lifetime.


Maharani Jind Kaur was popularly known as Jindan, the wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and mother of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last Sikh sovereign of the Punjab. She was daughter of Manna Singh, an Aulakh Jatt of Gujranwala. The big eyed queen became regent for her young son Dalip Singh, when he was made Maharaja after the death of his foster-brother, Maharaja Sher Singh. Rani Jindan, a woman of beauty, rose to be a heroine of the Sikh nation.
She resisted the efforts of the British to annex the Punjab for some time, but when the British did take power she was removed from the Regency Council, which was to conduct the administration during the minority of Maharaja Dalip Singh. The Queen had become a symbol of national dignity. She continued to urge the freedom fighters back in the Punjab to continue the struggle dauntlessly. She was known for her intelligence and intrepid spirit, Jindan was one of the few persons who was intensely disliked and feared by the British.

Their son Maharaja Duleep Singh was ineffectual as a ruler and went to England.

The two Sikh wars in 1846 and 1849 led to the annexation of Punjab, and it's takeover by the British. Before 1846 British had to call Sikhs when they needed something. After 1849 the situation was reversed and the Sikhs had to ask the British.

Lord Dalhousie had hung a portrait of Maharja Duleep Singh as trophy he had won in war in his living room. He became a symbol of an absent Maharaja.

In terms of representations in art, Sikh artists started portraying Sikh history. And the Gurus started being represented by the ideals they represented, instead of through European prisms of representation of the “other”.

Sobha Singh was the first Sikh artist. Soon Punjabiyat started being represented for instance the love stories of Sohni and Mahiwal and Heer and Ranjha.
Amrita Shergill showed simple village life in Punjab.


The Singh Twins, Amrit and Rabindra, have used minatures to interpret the teaching of the gurus.


Artists like Arpana Cour have depicted the teachings of Guru Nanak in a fresh and contemporary way, by simplifying the vocabulary of the imagery.

Mr. Aijazuddin ended this excellent all encompassing talk by describing the Sikh faith as a sacrement that has an outward visible form and an inner invisbile force. Early Sikh art is characterized by it’s universality, its intergrity and as an essential bridge between preceding religions and faiths.

I asked a question which was non art related, about how many Sikhs lived in Pakistan, and how they were treated.

And the eloquent answer I got was there are about 50-70 thousand Sikhs living in Pakistan. They are located in Punjab and the Sindh, where their are Sindhis that practise Sikhism. The 400 year celebration of the Panja Sahib gurdwara was celebrated with Prime Minister of Pakistan Shaukat Aziz being the chief guest. Also a direct bus service between Amritsar and Nankana Sahib (Guru Nanaks’s birthplace) has been started. And the first Sikh has joined the Pakistani army!