Gita-Govinda in The Assam School of Painting

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There is quite a good number of illustrated manuscripts in Assam, of which very few-only two to be precise- have come to be printed- namely, the Bali-sattra Adi Dalam Bhagavata of Sankaradeva and Sukumar Barkath's Hatividyarnava illuminated with paintings from the brush of the two artists, Dilbar and Dosai. Beyond these two books only a few miniatures have come out with other books and along other articles. Works on the practice of this art in Assam, again, are very near scratch and we can refer only to two publications so far the tiny Art of Painting in Assam by Dr Maheswar Neog and Eastern Indian Maniacript Painting by Dr Rajatananda Dasgupta. Even in Assamese there are not many writings on the tradition of painting in the region. But there is quite a good number of illustrated manuscripts in collections like those in the Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Assam, Guwahati: Kamarapa Anusandhana Samiti, Guwahati; the British Museum, London and in numerous Vaishnava establishments, called sattras, strewn all over the Brahmaputra valley as well as in private possession.

We are extremely grateful to the two well-known art scholars, Dr (Srimati) Kapila Vatsyayan and Professor Dr Maheswar Neog, for having prepared the text with general introductions and critical appraisal of the art work. They have exposed the subject lucidly and judiciously put forward their arguments in favour of an independent Assam school of painting. It is satisfying to feel with Dr Vatsyayan "that the Assamese school clearly exhibits a distinct identity which cannot be dismissed as a minor, not too vibrant offshoot of Rajasthani painting" and that "our manuscript is clear evidence of a distinct autonomous regional character unmistakable for its compositional norms, its stylistic techniques, its peculiar sense of line and its pallette."

We are greatly thankful to the members of the Kamarupa Anusandhana Samiti for having allowed our two writers the use of the manuscript in their keeping and having permitted the Board to reproduce the pictures. The manuscript, of course, is sadly fragmentary with quite a number of folios missing. Dr Neog collected a few of these folios from private persons, to whom perhaps the Samiti lent them, and found two bright folios in the Gauhati University's Krishnakanta Handiqui Library, where they are still preserved. But the remaining aloe bark leaves could not be traced, and it is not known if the Samiti has any plan to restore these to their own possession.

Thanks are also due to the printers, Messrs Sreeguru Press, Guwahati, for having put in a good deal of diligence into this much prized publication of ours.

The present work is a collaboration of us two-one, MN. englishing. the early eighteenth century Assamese text with needful text-critical notes and editing the Assam version of the original astapadis of Jayadeva, and the other, KV, providing the art commentary all through. One, KV, was making an all-India survey of the art world conjured up by the lyrical Gita Gowda tradition under the aegis of a Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, and the other, MN, sought slightly to be of help to the project by way of the English rendering and fragmentary notes on the miniatures illustrating the Assamese verses as well as the Sanskrit lyrics at the end. A welcome request came to them in that juncture from Publication Board Assam to prepare this art publication. And all that became the genesis of the book.

We are indeed very grateful to Kamarupa Anusandhana Samiti and Gauhati University Krishnakanta Handiqui Library for the facilities they permitted us for the study and reproduction of this magnificent work of art on aloe bark folios and to the Publication Board for planning this sumptuous publication. Thank you's are also variously due to our many friends in New Delhi and Guwahati: Dr R.K.Sharma of the Education Ministry, India; Shri Bhaskar Barua and Shri Kamaleswar Bora, Education Commissioner of Assam by turn; Miss Premlata Puri of the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, New Delhi: Shri C.P. Saikia, Shri Kumud Goswami, and Shri Bhuban Ch. Kalita of the Publication Board, Shri M.C.Das, President, Kamarupa Anusandhana Samiti, Dr J.N.Bhuyan and Shri M.M.Lahkar of the Assam State Museum, Dr (Miss) Sulekha Chakravarti and Shri Bhaben Das. The printers, Sreeguru Press, deserve our special praise and thanks.

**Contents and Sample Pages**