It seldom happens that a particular image, or an idea, or a figure, gets identified with a particular artist. But it happened with two of our modern masters – Maqbool Fida Husain and Sayed Haider Raza. Husain with horses, and Raza with the bindu. Both these motifs appeared fairly early in their artistic careers and remained the motifs they revisited again and again throughout their career.
Raza did not come to the bindu suddenly. It was a childhood memory of his schoolteacher trying to calm his wayward mind by drawing a bindu on the wall of the verandah of the rural school he was studying in. Haider, the boy, was told to concentrate his attention on it. That bindu, blown up as the dark sun, remained with Raza throughout his artistic career, especially in France.
Raza said, “For me at that initial stage, bindu not only represented the primordial symbol or the seed. It also represented for me a point, which could be enlarged to a circle – one of the most significant geometrical forms!… In terms of painting, immense possibilities seemed to open up – the circle, vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, the triangle and the square. Immense energy and potential were released by a simple yet essential form. It opened up a whole new vocabulary which corresponded, in a sense, to my training in Paris in formalism.”
He also noted, “My earlier bindus were not vibrating: they were dense and solid as pure form. Later, the bindu appeared as a concentric circle of energy, expanding. Still later, they began moving through space, as the sun moves across the sky.’ While the bindu seems only pure form, it has, what could be called, spiritual connotations. In the Indian metaphysical tradition, there are concepts like NaadBindu. Raza took care to clarify that ‘My using a circle or square as key motifs do not make my painting tantric even if I call them ‘Bindu’, ‘Surya’ or ‘Shoonnya’.”
He also went to the extent of asserting, “I have no apology for my repetition of the form of bindu. With repetition, you can gain energy and intensity – as is gained through the japmala, or the repetition of a word or a syllable – until you achieve a state of elevated consciousness.”
Raza believed that “Bindu grows and reveals in its mysterious and multiple manifestations.” He even asserted that “the possibilities are so enormous a whole lifetime is not enough”. It may appear that his bindu paintings are repetitive but if you look carefully, they are not: each time the bindu emerges in a different context, located in a new geometric configuration. In any case, it is many things: a still centre, a centre of energy, an all-engulfing figure, something that stands solid vis a vis the ephemeral nature of reality. It embodies essence, it harps back to the origins. There are works in which the bindu is in turmoil and fury; there are yet others in which the bindu manifests tranquillity and consonance. Renowned art critic Geeti Sen named the first ever book on Raza Bindu: Space and Time in Raza. With this title, she was underlining the fact that in the bindu both space and time coalesce, they are released of their binaries.
There have been many instances when Raza wrote clarifying his obsession with “Bindu”. He once wrote:
‘Born in Central India, in the virgin forests of Madhya Pradesh, I was immersed into nature. For years, I have painted the landscapes, initially as perceived by the eyes and then felt, reflected and lived. My stay in Paris made me understand the importance of the plastic manner: the form, the structure, the colour. After a long time working and reflection, the two researches have converged towards a single point to become inseparable, which I call “Bindu”. In the evolution of my work, “land”, “seed” and “germination” seem to be a logical sequence. Bindu is a primordial, essential symbol-seed in Indian aesthetics. It is at the same time, the purest sign of energy—natural and conceptual, it is also the point in visual vocabulary.’
He even traced the chronology of “Bindu” in his work: “The first painting realised was a dark black bindu with grey and white radiation around within a square frame. In the centre of the circle were a vertical and a horizontal line. This was the genesis. Slowly, colours started appearing, at first rather dull, and later, more and more bright. By using black with white, red, yellow and blue, which compose the total colour spectrum, a variation of themes came into my work. I called this first painting with the use of five colours, ‘Sourya’ (1977). My painting titled ‘Bindu’ (1980) was shown in Delhi at the Indian Triennale. It was painted in acrylic on canvas, within a square frame. This was exhibited along with the larger painting in a horizontal format titled ‘Maa’ (1981), in which the central focus is again the large, black and opaque bindu. My earlier bindus were not vibrating: they were dense and solid, as pure form. Later, the bindu appeared as concentric circles of energy, expanding. Still later, they began moving through space, as the sun moves across the sky. ‘Jala Bindu’ (1990) explores the same idea, but using only one of the five elements of water. Fine horizontal lines move out from the central bindu, which seems to be rising. Painted in blues, this represents for me the female or the feminine aspect. With the bindu, I discovered that a whole series of different climates of thought can be created. ‘Bindu Panchtattva’ demonstrates the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether. I have interpreted the universe in terms of five primary colours: black, white, red, blue and yellow. A total chromatic expression can be achieved by mixing primary colours with other secondary colours, such as greens, browns and ochres. From there you can move to a great austerity of colours till you come to a supreme purity of form, as in ‘Param Bindu’ (1989).”
Raza has also recorded, “And one night, in Gorbio, in the south of France, I had the enlightenment about bindu, which was a starting point for me. A single unit radiating an immense force, an incredible energy, which is contained in a point, the bindu. At the same time, it contains an idea, a seed, a drop, a unit and all geometrical forms like a point, a circle, the triangles and the colours. That night I saw something new unveil itself: a revelation. It has been twenty years that I have been working on this idea. The paintings have come, one after another, all an illustration of the same subject, one leading to the next, the canvases which showed the colours of the five elements: white, black, red and blue, all beginning from an obscure vacuum, a little like the five elements in the Indian tradition (the panchtattvas: kshiti, jal, pavak, gagan, sameer; earth, water, fire, ether and air).”
In the last canvas, that remained incomplete, Raza painted a large black bindu. It is in the “Last Studio” maintained in the Raza Foundation still on the easel.
Excerpted with permission from Celebration and Prayer: Life and Light in Raza’s Art, Ashok Vajpeyi, Speaking Tiger Books.