The Point of Creation and Death: S. H. Raza's Bindu

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The Point of Creation and Death: S. H. Raza's Bindu

S.H. Raza’s paintings hold great importance in the realm of Indian Art as he is ‘pointedly’ famous for the inducement of the motif of ‘Bindu’ which eventually became the signature motif of a typical Raza painting. The story behind how this obsession with this geometrical expression started is quite an interesting one. But even more interesting is the unique and vast message that Raza meant to convey with the simple ethnography of the Bindu.

(S. H. Raza painted most of his later paintings with the theme of the ‘Bindu’ always holding centre stage, Source: Pinterest)

Art is called the physical and visual manifestation of superior emotions which encapsulates a person’s heart until it is captured on something tangible, immortalizing a vision that demands to be shared with people at large. Enlightening the blind with creation so divine that would leave the future generations thinking, celebrating the artist and his art as a gift to the world.

Indian artists are reckoned worldwide for their projection of Indian culture in its most subtle and globally revolutionary manner through their masterful indulgence in Indian ethnology. Their art is more about the message behind a painting or a handicraft which the artist presents to the entire world. If a piece of art successfully touches and changes the perspective of a person, then it can be said that the artist has served their purpose.

In this static sense, Sayed Haider Raza, an Indian modernist and expressionist Painter proved to be a top-notch Indian artist for having created art of distinguished importance by touching global hearts and highlighting the spirit of Indian Culture through his paintings. Specifically, his ‘Bindu’ paintings, which became Raza’s signature motif, were ‘the centre of his existence’.

Raza was never an “art for art’s sake” artist. He knew for an artist to survive in this world of tough and growing competition, they must adopt a broader perspective of his art to remain viable through thick and thin. Raza had a sense of struggle and sacrifice since his younger life.

Born in Madla, Madhya Pradesh, as the son of a forest ranger near the banks of the Narmada river, he was always aware of the sheer allure that the natural landscape of India beholds. He became quite a Wordsworth in this context and his early art encaptured the natural Indian landscape through a modernist perspective.

Then came a discourse in Raza’s life and career and he took off to France, to explore the artistic world around the world, met his future wife there, and got settled in France. Raza would go on to live in France for the next 50 years, remembering India only in postcards and snippets. It was only in the 1980s when Raza returned to India to undertake a rejuvenating spiritual journey around the country to replenish his artistic elements, as he found his inspiration lagging to create meaningful art.

It was after a trip to the ‘Ajanta-Ellora Caves’ that Raza got inspired to adopt the expression of a dot, a ‘Bindu’ as the centre of his art. Hence it was with the motif of the Bindu that Raza’s artistic credibility was re-born. Blessed be that trip, blessed be that vision that instilled a revolutionary artistic symbolism with which Raza blessed the world of art.

Since then Raza started producing paintings with the foundation of the Bindu always leading the metaphysical aspect of his art. For Raza, the Bindu became the focal point of his existence, the point at which the base of creation revolves, the starting and end of existence, of life in the most surreal and supreme sense.

Raza’s Bindu reaffirms the point of concentration from which life erupts, the motif of the dot seems to include the whole universe inside, like a planet, a seed, and most of the time, the vision of the human eye.

There is an interesting childhood story regarding Raza’s late obsession with the Bindu. When Raza was a child, he had difficulty concentrating on a particular activity, his focus always wandering, not stabilizing on any single task at hand. One day his teacher gave him an earful and drew a large circle on the blackboard and told him to concentrate on that Bindu only, to concentrate on the thing at hand. Since that day the Bindu impacted Raza’s mind in such a way that it would resurface again many years later in his career when he would need the power of the Bindu most urgently. Inhibition from the past turned into a powerful premonition, establishing Raza’s art as expressionist and linking vantages from Indian culture into the modernist context.

Raza’s paintings always had a rich perspective of colours, symbolizing the richness of Indian culture, the Bindu era enabled Raza to pair his strategic colour schemes with simple geometric symbolism, always having the Bindu as the focal point of meaning in his paintings. Sometimes the Bindu is fashioned as the sun, sometimes the eye, and sometimes it is a seed, but most of the time the Bindu symbolizes finality and beginnings. Like a seed in the womb, celebrating female fertility, or a teardrop rolling off from Draupadi’s eyes, signalling the start of the great war of Mahabharata.

To get a wider sense of the Bindu symbolism, let's have a look at two of Raza’s most critiqued yet admirable Bindu paintings. The first is the Panchtatva. This painting symbolizes the five pillars of nature- Water, Fire, Earth, Air, and Sky. Raza uses his organic palette to depict the various elements of nature. The Bindu acts as the middle point of attraction, though black, it combines all the five elements of nature giving out the meaning that even though the Panchtatva are entirely different from one another, once combined they are crucial for the balance of the environment, making life possible.

After his wife’s death, Raza finally returned to India to spend the rest of his days in his homeland. He died at the age of 94 in New Delhi, a happy and fulfilled man. His last wish was that he wanted to be buried in his hometown beside his father, which was fulfilled respectfully.

Raza won the Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan and earned the Legion of Honour. He gave the world of art and literature devastating discoveries, finding the power to bestow meaning on the simplest of things, as simple as a lone Bindu. Raza’s Bindu not only left an exceptional expressionist tradition behind, but it also put an end to all inhibitions that an artist often feels during their journey, to ever doubt their art as vague, not good enough to be in vogue one day.

The other painting to understand the role of the Bindu would be ‘Surya-Namaskar’. This painting is a tribute to the devotional and foundational importance of the sun in the ecosystem. The Bindu functions as the sun itself in the centre of the painting. The colours are the darker shades of sunrise, and they get lighter and softer signifying the rising of the son. The other elements around the Bindu act as other elements like trees and mountains. At first glance it won’t be clear what those shapes are exactly but once the focus adjusts the shapes starts to make sense. That’s the whole perspective that the Bindu brings in, focus and clarity until just shapes become symbolic, bringing out great meanings. It’s all a matter of perspective and interpretation.