Art in A Phulkari Temple Hanging

Once again I am struck!

For about a week I have been asking my Punjabi friends to interpret this textile from their land.

We are getting somewhere but not far enough!

What I see is as follows:

• We have Sita and the deer
• we have Hanuman and Sanjeevani or Dronagiri,
• we have Krishna with his flute and Mira with her sitar…
• And some others that I don’t recognise – maybe Guru Nanak & Jalaram Bapa?

It is an anachronistic party of people from different eras.

“A Midnight in Paris”  type of meeting – and instead of artsy people, these are all spiritual leaders from various periods in time congregating in the field of the Phulkari.

And finally there is the Sikh Soldier with his gun. He probably came by to ensure harmony and peace.

And then there are two words that took awhile to figure out.

Created in Gurmukhi script the words read: “Majnu”  & “Aurat”

Majnu is famed for his  star-crossed love  for Laila and AURAT = woman.

What are lovebirds doing at this spirituality convention?

Was the artist trying to depict the idea of “Love” through these? And suggesting that Love is as much a religion as all other notions?

See more of this rare amazing textile here on wovensouls.com

jm

Nov 2016

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