|
Published in 1948 by: Orient Longmans Ltd.,
Bombay, Calcutta, Madras.
|
Portraits
of Mahatma Gandhi
by Mukul Dey
Preface
Jacket of the album designed by Mukul Dey |
My book Twelve Portraits had just come out at the end of 1917
and, with a view to making a collection of portraits of the great
men of South India, I visited Madras in 1918. There I heard that a
great leader of the Indians of South Africa had come to stay in Madras
for a few days. It was Mrs. Sarojini Naidu who took me one morning
to the house where Gandhiji was staying at the time. I found him sitting
on a taktaposh (wooden-bed) with only a loin cloth tied round
his waist, talking to several people who sat round him on the floor.
His hair was closely cropped, but he had a shikha, the vaishnava Hindu's
tuft of hair at the back of his head. It stuck me that he was a great
saint and a political leader at the same time.
|
It was Mrs. Sarojini Naidu who took me one
morning to the house where Gandhiji was staying at the time.
It stuck me that he was a great saint and a political leader
at the same time.
|
Mrs. Naidu then introduced me to Gandhiji and told him of my errand.
Gandhiji smiled sweetly at me, as if signifying his consent to my
doing his portrait. He went on talking to the people in the room,
while I busied myself with my pencil. I finished the portrait within
an hour. Gandhiji looked at it and said, 'Do I really
look like that? Of course I cannot see my face from that angle.' Then
he passed it round to the persons assembled there. At my request he
put down the following words in Gujrati:
Mohan Das Gandhi
Phagun Badi 3, Samvat 1975
Mahatma Gandhi, Madras 1918
Click on the above image for larger view. |
After thus putting his name and date on the drawing, he again
gave me another of his characteristic smiles.
In 1922, when my friend the late C. F. Andrews came to visit me
in my studio in London, he admired this portrait so much that I
made a present of it to him. It subsequently passed into the possession
of the Visva-Bharati at Santiniketan, among other effects of Charlie
Andrews. Through the courtesy of Sreejut Rathindranath Tagore, the
General Secretary of the Visva-Bharati, this pencil drawing is reproduced
here.
On my return from England in the year 1928, I held an exhibition
of my work at the Indian Society of Oriental Art in Calcutta. Whilst
the exhibition was in progress, I felt a sudden impulse to visit
Mahatma Gandhi and do a portrait of him in the new medium of drypoint
(something like engraving on copper or zinc plates) which I had
learnt and practised in England.
So I secured an introduction from C. F. Andrews, fearing that the
Mahatma might have forgotten me, as so many years had passed since
our first meeting. I also had a faint curiosity to see at first
hand how this great saint lived in his hermitage at Sabarmati. He
seemed to me to be a re-incarnation of our great saints Bhakta Kabir
and Tulsidas.
|
He was surprised to know that such a frail
and unimposing person as himself was worthy of being portrayed
by an artist coming from such a great distance.
|
On arriving there one morning in March 1928, I found that the Mahatma
had gone to bathe in the Sabarmati near-by. When he came back shortly
afterwards I presented my letter of introduction and was cordially
received by him. He was surprised to know that such a frail and unimposing
person as himself was worthy of being portrayed by an artist coming
from such a great distance. He permitted me to stay in one of the
rooms of the school building of the ashram across the road. The Ashram
is situated on the high bank of the river and is a cluster of tiled
huts in a pomegranate grove. On the other side of the river can be
seen the tall factory chimneys and big houses of Ahmedabad city.
Early in the morning after prayers Mahatmaji would go out for a
long walk with the inmates of the Ashram. He always walked very
fast. Returning to the ashram before sunrise he would regularly
help the inmates in their domestic duties for an hour or so. After
sunrise he would sit in the sun, and have his body massaged with
ghee about 60 years old - almost black, with age - and at the same
time put a thick coating of cold mud on his head and press it down
with a towel. At the same time his
|
..his correspondence used to be read out to
him by his Secretary, the late Mahadev Desai, to whom the
Mahatma dictated the replies while he shaved himself with
a silver Gillette razor
|
correspondence used to be read out to him by his Secretary, the late
Mahadev Desai, to whom the Mahatma dictated the replies while he shaved
himself with a silver Gillette razor, Sardar Vallabhai Patel with
his daughter Mani Ben and Miss Slade (Mira Ben) were also there; Mira
Ben was specially asked by the Mahatma to look after my comforts.
Here for the first time I came to know that Mahatma Gandhi is addressed
as 'Bapuji' (Revered Father) by the inmates of the Ashram, just as
we of the Santiniketan Ashram call Rabindranath 'Gurudev'.
After the midday meal which was a simple affair and which I used
to share with him, always sitting on his right, he would sit with
his Charkha in the same hall. The room was almost without furniture.
This was the time when I would generally make my drypoints on copper
plates.
|
The whole atmosphere was calm and peaceful
but rather desolate with its background of tiny shrubs of
neem and mimosa.
|
In the evening after prayers I would sit and watch the cranes and
other birds coming back from all quarters to the trees of the Ashram
as if to a refuge where they felt completely secure. The whole atmosphere
was calm and peaceful but rather desolate with its background of
tiny shrubs of neem and mimosa.
|
The Mahatma showed me the greatest kindness
during my fortnight's stay at the Ashram. He was so kind as
to offer me half of the school building at Sabarmati to start
an Art School according to my own ideas...
|
I did four different drypoints of him and a few pencil sketches, and
also a portrait of Kasturba Gandhi, who was always besides her husband.
The Mahatma showed me the greatest kindness during my fortnight's
stay at the Ashram. He was so kind as to offer me half of the school
building at Sabarmati to start an Art School according to my own ideas;
unfortunately this was never realized, as I fell ill at the beginning
of the hot weather in April 1928. So I left Sabarmati.
In September 1945, I went to Allahabad to do some portraits of
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. In the course of a conversation with him,
I brought up my
|
...I had discovered, whilst staying at Sabarmati,
that the Mahatma had a deep love for the Fine Arts. In the
course of his conversations with me he had made various clever
suggestion about art education in India.
|
old plan of establishing a National Art Gallery and gave Pandit Nehru
the skeleton of my scheme. I suggested that the Mahatma would be the
fittest person to be the Chief Patron of such an Art Gallery as I
had discovered, whilst staying at Sabarmati, that the Mahatma had
a deep love for the Fine Arts. In the course of his conversations
with me he had made various clever suggestion about art education
in India.
Pandit Jawaharlal grew enthusiastic over the matter and asked me
to visit Mahatma Gandhi again and discuss the scheme with him. Shortly
afterwards, I proceeded to Bombay, and found that Mahatmaji was
recuperating at the Nature Clinic in Poona.
|
I presented Mahatmaji with a copy of my Twenty
Portraits and laid my scheme for the National Art Gallery
before him.
Mahatmaji blessed my scheme and said everything would come
right in the end, and there would certainly be a National
Art Gallery when India had obtained her independence.
|
I went there on 15 November, 1945. I presented Mahatmaji with a copy
of my Twenty Portraits and laid my scheme for the National
Art Gallery before him. Mahatmaji laughingly remarked, 'You have only
produced twenty portraits in twenty years? Is that all you have done?'
I joined in the laugh and said, 'If you come to my Studio at Santiniketan
you will see for yourself what I have done.' Mahatmaji blessed my
scheme and said everything would come right in the end, and there
would certainly be a National Art Gallery when India had obtained
her independence.
Mahatma Gandhi at Nature Clinic, Poona 1945
Click on the above image for larger view. |
I stayed in Poona for three days and my visit was amply rewarded,
as I was able to make several pencil and crayon drawings and pen
and ink sketches of the Mahatma.
Gandhiji loved to visit Santiniketan and he stayed there on several
occasions after his return from South Africa. Mahatmaji's deep regard
for this 'Abode of Peace' where in turn the Maharshi, his eldest
son the Philosopher Dwijendranath Tagore, called Baro-Dada (eldest
brother) by Mahatmaji, and his youngest son the poet Rabindranath
Tagore communed with nature was always evidenced by his words and
actions.
|
He would always take off his shoes near the
village of Bhubandanga, a mile away from the precincts of
the Santiniketan Ashram, and enter it with great humility
of sprit.
|
He would always take off his shoes near the village of Bhubandanga,
a mile away from the precincts of the Santiniketan Ashram, and enter
it with great humility of sprit just like a king visiting an ancient
'Tapovana' (forest hermitage).
Thus he came one evening, the 18 December, 1945, and sat down to
the prayers with the inmates of the Ashram.
Next day, early in the morning, the Mahatma held his usual congregational
prayer at the Mandir attached to the Ashram.
|
..Bapuji and his party visited my studio and
stayed for about an hour. Among other things, I showed Bapuji
the drypoint portrait of Kasturba Gandhi which I did at Sabarmati
in 1928. He was immensely pleased and held it tenderly close
to his eyes, as if he was talking to her for a while.
|
Later in the day Bapuji and his party visited my studio and stayed
for about an hour. Among other things, I showed Bapuji the drypoint
portrait of Kasturba Gandhi which I did at Sabarmati in 1928. I
presented the portrait to Bapuji. He was immensely pleased and held
it tenderly close to his eyes, as if he was talking to her for a
while.
Mahatmaji invited my wife and myself to visit him at Sevagram.
The interest which he showed in the various objects of art at my
studio encouraged me to think that I might possibly find a way through
him of establishing a National Art Gallery, Museum and Art School.
We arrived at Wardha Station on 8 August, 1946. After an hour's
traveling in a tonga through a bleak hilly countryside, we suddenly
came upon a number of tiled huts surrounded by trees and plants
looking like an oasis in the desert. This was Sevagram, where Mahatmaji
and his associates lived a simple and austere life of toil.
|
What at once stuck us about the place was
its exceptional cleanliness and profound silence; even the
crows perched on the top of the trees had forgotten to caw,
and the dogs to bark.
|
What at once stuck us about the place was its exceptional cleanliness
and profound silence; even the crows perched on the top of the trees
had forgotten to caw, and the dogs to bark. Everyone in the Ashram
was busy with his own work, moving about quietly. Through the deep
silence I felt peace creeping into my soul, and I forgot all about
the object of my visit for the time being.
I soon discovered that I had come there at a most inopportune moment
and did not wish to trouble Bapuji about my own affairs. It was
already too late to discuss things other than those of more pressing
and immediate interest. I therefore only sought his blessings on
my project. Bapuji, through his infinite kindness, readily gave
me his blessings and I departed from Sevagram on the day which was
his day of silence.
When I went to him to do my obeisance just before my departure,
he handed me a paper containing his message and smiled at me with
uplifted arm in a gesture of blessing. Silently we turned back homewards,
little thinking at the time that we should never see his smiling
face again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click on the above image
for larger view. |
English translation of the message written
in Hindi by Mahatma Gandhi.
Brother Mukul Dey has an intense desire to see the Fine Arts
flourish. To aspire after a thing is man's nature, but God has
kept in his own hands the fulfilment of man's desires. Let adoration
of God be, therefore, the sustenance of Brother Mukul Dey.
|
Want to do research work at Mukul Dey Archives? Click
here for details.
Have questions? Check them out in our Frequently
Asked Questions section, or contact us by
or fill our feedback form . Someone from
Mukul Dey Archives will get back to you soon.
Printer
friendly version
|
