Cycles in Banaras

SHIVA
CAFE

Ranjit Makkuni strum those strings, art, design and music , Mahamaya Experience, opera

Cycle Jhalla

The Cycle Jhalla is a lyrical video installation based on 5 compositions set to the Indian Raga Malkauns, capturing the beauty of the cycle rickshaws of Banaras. The installation looks at the musical, playful, chaotic nature, and visual aesthetic of the rickshaw in the streets of Banaras. It is inspired from the concept of the “jhalla”a term used to describe a kind of intense musical progression in Indian instrumental music forms. The spokes of the wheel relate to the steel strings of the sitar and this installation establishes a correspondence between the spokes of the wheel and the sitar. Through an aural backdrop of five sitar jhalla compositions, the music intends to capture the movement, rhythm, geometry and colour of the cycle rickshaw which is visualized as a poetic relief on the Banaras cityscape, a musical instrument in itself.

THE CROSSING

LIVING, DYING AND TRANSFORMATION IN BANARAS

Throughout the world, lakes, forests, mountains, rivers have been seen as ‘power spots’ and concentrations of Nature’s energies. Gradually, mythologies grew around these spots, and the union of myth and place creates a sacred geography. They became pilgrimage centres – Crossing-Points – providing people with the setting to cross over into a world of learning and transformation. Banaras, on the banks of the Ganga, is the crossing-point that the Crossing Project examines.

Banaras, Kashi, the oldest living city in the world, is described as a microcosm of Indian civilization. The multiple riches of Banaras invoke many different interpretations. The most significant of them is that Banaras is regarded as the greatest of all tirthas, Crossing Place, a ‘transitional zone’ to cosmic reality and a portal of spiritual liberation.

The aura of the divine presence envelopes Kashi much more than any other place. It is said that when Brahma weighed the sky with its Gods against Kashi, Kashi being heavier sank down to earth, and the sky soared above.

The countless myths, symbolic meanings, philosophical interpretations and patterns of collective memory that have accrued around the city have given Banaras a distinctive personality, a city which en-globes the whole of existence. It is a place where life is relished to the fullest, and fear of death is conquered, and where many choose to die to attain spontaneous liberation.