This marble artifact is an example of rare craftsmanship seeking to
chisel out of a solid rock a pot with no mass within – an absolute
hollow, and no dissymmetry beyond – a perfect round, a volume but
without weight, attaining such level of finesse that a piece of stone
looks like the finest of Dhaka muslin – transparent and translucent.
This ‘ghata’ – pot, has not been sculpted like a Purna-ghata for
revealing its symbolic or ritual significance or for using it for
accomplishing a rite for texts do not ever recommend a stone pot for
rituals, more acceptable being those of metals or the earthen. It is
more like a magic pot seeking its significance in its power to
mesmerize the eye by its unique beauty astonishing by the very thought
as to how the chisel might have reached within and the hammer could
strike it inside a concavely carved space. Marble, the stone the
‘ghata’ has been carved from, is not a soft rock but is capable of
giving forth forms as delicate as a feather and this pot presents an
example.
Perfect in modeling and unparalleled in fluidity, perspectives of
height, breadth and all seem to simply flow out of its form. Sometimes
it seems like a colourful bubble that the air or the empty space
breeds, and sometimes, a form, melting back into air or space. Not
merely that the sculptor has transformed a piece of stone into a pot
with delicate walls, not thicker than a centimeter or so, he has
incised with thread-like fineness their exterior with flower motifs,
leaves, stems and graphics to contain them within. Besides brilliantly
colouring these forms the junctions where the two or more ends meet
have been embedded with semi-precious stones. Whether the
twelve-petalled flowers, the main decorative motif, the tiny plants
with a pair of leaves and a flower with five petals rising on a large
pistil, inverted floral patterns, tiny leaf forms, dots or inverted
flame-motifs, all have been painted in gold yet with their widely
different forms, and edges of each petal, leaf or other motif,
identified in different colours, the pot generates a feeling as
breathes a garden with diverse flower-beds in full bloom.
This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a number of books.
