A Tale Being Told Since Infinity,
Video Installation, 2023
Summary & Treatment:
The illuminated manuscript folios of the Benares Golden Ramayana (commissioned by Maharaja Udit Narayan Singh in 1796-1814, now in the collection of MAP, Begaluru) has a unique visual mnemonic to it, that builds up into a narrative matrix; the juxtaposition of this with the narrative structure of the Ramacharitamanas (which it illustrates), results in a complex pattern of an endlessly inter-looping meta-narrative that has two aspects: 1. Architectural, whereby the narrators and listeners enter and exit the painting space and 2. The Holographic space of Vishnu’s Cosmic Body where all the narratives converge, converging space-time into a nonlinear continuum. The installation consists of animated paintings looped on an arrangement of multiple video screens.
Filmmaker’s Note:
The narrative framework and structure of the Ramacharitamanas of Tulsidas on which the Golden Ramayana illuminations are based is that of a layered matrix of multiverses. The video installation takes inspiration from this structure to create repeating narrative loops that fit into each other infinitely. At the outset is a simple story-within-a story structure. There are four pairs of narrator-listeners (Shiva-Parvati, Bharadhwaja-Yajnavalkya, Garuda-Kaka-Bhushundi, Tulsidas-devotees). These pairs are reporting the narration of the other pairs and also to each other. In other words, they feature in each of the other pair’s narration. All of their conversations and the content of their conversation, which include personal involvement in the narrative as well as the story of Rama, converge in a single focal point: the body of Rama in his cosmic form. Inside the body, infinite numbers of the same pairs are recounting the same tale in infinite ways, with or without variations. This is also reflected in the variety of styles, variations in character-design and also repetitions of similar scenes in the illuminations. So the primary narrators viz. Shiva-Parvati and Garuda-Kakabhushundi, enter and exit each scenario infinitely either in recollection or in participation, continuously merging into the grand-narrative of their own telling.