Ownership and Memory in the Namami Gange Series

Seema Sharma Shah and Memory Gajurel

A view from the Ghats of Banaras where Dr. Seema Sharma Shah spent her childhood.

The Namami Gange series is a faithful representation of the city of Banaras and the beauty the idea of the place holds. Faithful, in the sense that this is a presentation of what Banaras and the river Gange is and has been to the people having them as a part of their life. Dr Sharma Shah’s rendition of the city’s expression as art is especially paramount due to her relationship with the city, having been born and spent her formative years there.

Why does her loyalty to the city matter so much to the philosophy of this series? This goes back to a similar series on the same subject source, a beautiful city holding years of culture, traditions and values to the people and the identity of many Hindu countries— William Hodges’ The Ghauts at Banaras. To a group of people, Hodges’ series of work based on Banaras may be something that added value to the beauty of Banaras on an international scale. But in actuality, Hodges’ representation of the city and its Ghauts are no more than romanticism of the things that he saw on the surface. There’s a great deal of importance missing from his project, which is the recognition of the locality. From a foreigner’s perspective, Banaras could surely be an old city built on millennium-old traditions, a place where multicultural architecture aligns, with colours and a river flowing through the city. But how does his work respect the normality, importance and uniqueness of Banaras?

In a wider geographical scope, the importance of Banaras, the olden city and as a reference in art and culture is associated with William Hodges and representation. However good the representation may have been in his sense, the result is far from it. The association of the ghats and Banaras and the river Gange flowing through it reduces the importance of the city and its values to nothing more than a tourism boost since the time of Hodges’ travel. Hodges's portrayal of the city limits its understanding, presentation and traditions accurately. Of course, Hodges' rendition of art as Banaras as a representation shows the tradition of ‘sati’ taking place which is said to be a better and an empowering version of it in comparison to the one by Atkinson.

Hodges’ side of the argument says that he portrayed the women as they were doing something powerful and all of their own will. He said that they’re supposed to be some commanding leading figures. But that’s just what they ended up as in his work— figures. As much as Hodges may have admired the beauty and uniqueness of Banaras, he couldn’t identify what it was that made his “view” as surreal as it was. In his painting of the ghats of Banaras by the Gange, the etching is as good as it can get. The architectural integrity of the ghats certainly does remain, but to a friendly eye, there’s nothing too impressive. To locals, they’ll see how this piece of art that’s been created by Hodges is not their Banaras. One of the major issues lies in the river gange as seen by Hodges’ piece. To every life living in Banaras, the fact stays that, the river Gange never stops, never stays still. What Hodges has managed to capture is the river still, not moving with men on their boats floating accompanied by a few figures by the ghats. The missable number of figures seem to be even there just to fill the spaces left by the lack of culture presented in the piece.

William Hodges' representation of Ghats at Benaras.

Why does Hodges’ attempt at capturing not feel enough? Well, it's because, if we’ve seen a piece of art that manages to truly capture and pay homage to the beauty of Banaras and its ghats, Hodges’ attempt just seems to be lazy. Why is it that although William Hodges and Dr Seema Sharma Shah have used the same technique, there’s something more to be left out of Hodges’ work while Sharma Shah manages to pleasingly perfect Banaras?

The answer is most likely the ownership Dr Shah’s work manages to take over their culture. The culture, the values, and the beauty of the city she grew up in. Dr Shah’s Namami Gange series showcases the ghats of Banaras and the beautiful sky as witnessed by her throughout her time there. Surely the Hindu culture is thousands of years old, even Hodges respected that. But it takes only someone who’s given their career studying the culture they represent. Dr Shah’s work in the Namami Gange shows the ghats of Banaras as seen through the architectural beauty and the cultural development in the city. It covers the stairs of the ghats in the way we know they’re as old as they are, the river gange seems to be flowing along its usual route and they’re completely empty in a manner to present the traditional beauty that isn’t only to be exemplified by the people that’s placed as objects.

The Namami Gange - 6 shows the beautiful sky of the city on what can presume, to be a day of celebration. A celebration of the years-old culture, not the present view of the city. It’s not shown to be just a recapture of the scene an artist has managed to capture. The piece shows just the city and the ghats as what they would be, even if without the people. It’s a colourful sky where the pinnacles of the temples in the ghats manage to reach far enough as the colourful kites. This is why the locality of the artist helps to represent the art in a way it should be—- more than just and without the objects that make the city unique.

Certain things can make a person stay true to the source material like the time they spent there, their identity which stems from the city itself, the people who’ve lived their whole life, people who’ve grown up following the thousand years old cultures and traditions— the local people. In the same sense, it would be and has been much more valid for Dr Sharma Shah to have successfully captured the beauty of the Gange in Banaras in comparison to that what Hodges was able to.

Namami Gange- 6. Etching. Seema Sharma Shah