Art and culture of west Bengal

Art and culture of west Bengal
Author: Sahanawaz Hussain
Publisher: Crown publishing
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2024-01-01
Genre: Art
ISBN:

The book ART AND CULTURE OF WEST BENGAL by Sahanawaz Hussain highlights the different culture of west Bengal. The state west Bengal has a diverse culture. Author Sahanawaz Hussain highlights all the culture of different district of west Bengal starting from North Bengal to South Bengal. West Bengal boasts a rich literary and cultural heritage with evidenced by authors like Rabindranath Tagore,folk music like baul,Gambhira as well as Najrul Geeti,Rabindra Sangeet. West Bengal is the home of a thriving cinema industry dubbed Tollywood.throughout the year many festivals are celebrated in bengal. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BOOK:- Art & Culture (Literature) The Bengali language boasts a rich literary heritage, shared with neighbouring Bangladesh. West Bengal has a long tradition in folk literature, evidenced by the Charyapada, Mangalkavya, Shreekrishna Kirtana, ThakurmarJhuli, and stories related to Gopal Bhar. In the nineteenth and twentieth century, Bengali literature was modernized in the works of authors such as Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Jibananda Das and Manik Bandyopadhyay. In modern times Jibanananda Das, Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, Manik Bandopadhyay, Ashapurna Devi, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Buddhadeb Guha, Mahashweta Devi, Samaresh Majumdar, Sanjeev Chattopadhyay and Sunil Gangopadhyay among others are well known. (Music and Dance) The Baul tradition is a unique heritage of Bengali folk music, which has also been influenced by regional music traditions. Other folk music forms include Gombhira and Bhawaiya. Folk music in West Bengal is often accompanied by the ektara, a one-stringed instrument. West Bengal also has an heritage in North Indian classical music. Rabindrasangeet, songs composed and set into tune by Rabindranath Tagore and Nazrul geeti (by Kazi Nazrul Islam) are popular. Also prominent are other musical forms like Dwijendralal, Atulprasad and Rajanikanta's songs, and adhunik or modern music from films and other composers. From the early 1990s, there has been an emergence and popularisation of new genres of music, including fusions of Baul and Jazz by several Bangla bands, as well as the emergence of what has been called Jeebonmukhi Gaan (a modern genre based on realism). Bengali dance forms draw from folk traditions, especially those of the tribal groups, as well as the broader Indian dance traditions. Chau dance of Purulia is a rare form of mask dance. State is known for Bengali folk music such as baul and kirtans and gajan, and modern songs including Bengali adhunik songs. (Films) The state is home to a thriving cinema industry, dubbed Tollywood. Tollygunj in Kolkata is the location of numerous Bengali movie studios, and the name Tollywood (similar to Hollywood and Bollywood) is derived from that name. The Bengali film industry is well known for all kind of films, and has produced acclaimed directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha and Ritwik Ghatak. Prominent contemporary directors include Buddhadev Dasgupta, Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen and Rituparno Ghosh.It has also produced famous film personalities like Uttam Kumar,Soumitra Chatterjee,Suchitra Sen,Kanon Devi,Kishore Kumar and many more. (Fine Arts) Bengal had been the harbinger of modernism in fine arts. Abanindranath Tagore, called the father of Modern Indian Art had started the Bengal School of Art which was to create styles of art outside the European realist tradition which was taught in art colleges under the colonial administration of the British Government. The movement had many adherents like Gaganendranath Tagore, RamkinkarBaij, Jamini Roy and Rabindranath Tagore. After Indian Independence, important groups like the Calcutta Group and the Society of Contemporary Artists were formed in Bengal which dominated the art scene in India. (Reformist Heritage) The capital, Kolkata, was the workplace of several social reformers, like Raja Ram Mohan Ray, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, and Swami Vivekananda. These social reforms have eventually led to a cultural atmosphere where practices like sati, dowry, and caste-based discrimination or untouchability, the evils that crept into the Hindu society, were abolished. (Costumes) Bengali women commonly wear the shaŗi , often distinctly designed according to local cultural customs. In urban areas, many women and men wear Western attire. Among men, western dressing has greater acceptance. Men also wear traditional costumes such as the panjabi with dhuti, often on cultural occasions. (Festivals) Durga Puja in October is the most popular festival in the West Bengal. Poila Baishakhthe Bengali New Year, Rathayatra, Dolyatra or Basanta-Utsab, Nobanno, Poush Parbon (festival of Poush), Kali Puja, SaraswatiPuja, LaxmiPuja, Christmas, Eid ul-Fitr, Eid ul-Adha and Muharram are other major festivals.

Bengali Culture Over a Thousand Years

Bengali Culture Over a Thousand Years
Author: Ghulam Murshid
Publisher: Niyogi Books
Total Pages: 507
Release: 2018-01-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 9386906120

Art, literature, music and other intellectual expressions of a particular society are together regarded as the culture of that society. Ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular people or society are also its ‘culture’. Contrary to what we think, it is not easy to describe ‘culture’, nor is it easy to write the cultural history. Writing the history of Bengali culture is even more difficult because Bengali society is truly plural in its nature, made even more so by its political division. The two main religious communities that share this culture are often more aware of the differences between them than the similarities. Nonetheless, the people remain bound by history and a shared language and literature. Ghulam Murshid’s Bengali Culture over a Thousand Years is the first non-partisan and holistic discussion of Bengali culture. Written for the general reader, the language is simple and the style lucid. It shows how the individual ingredients of Bengali culture have evolved and found expression, in the context of political developments and how certain individuals have moulded culture. Above all, the book presents the identity and special qualities of Bengali culture. The book was originally published in Bengali in Dhaka in 2006. This is the first English translation.

Village of Painters

Village of Painters
Author: Frank J. Korom
Publisher:
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2006
Genre: Art
ISBN:

Highlights the state's rich cultural and natural landscapes and attractions with fifty-seven photographs in a week-at-a-glance format.

The Rāmāyana in Bengali Folk Paintings

The Rāmāyana in Bengali Folk Paintings
Author: Mandakranta Bose
Publisher:
Total Pages: 139
Release: 2017
Genre: Folk art
ISBN: 9789385285554

The images presented in this book take us into the heart of the rich folk tradition of India. Of that heritage, the display of paintings accompanied by comments recited or sung has been a part of since very early times, as attested by references and legends in Sanskrit sources, including the Harsacarita, a 7th century work by Banabhatta. Known as patacitras or patas in short, these illustrated narratives on rectangular fabric or paper as well as on scrolls are a type of performed art that reaches out to audiences, mostly rural, conveying the artists' responses to legends and social themes of common knowledge across a wide range of audiences from varied social and cultural bases. A particularly powerful class of such paintings that come from the Bengali-speaking region of eastern India comprise the depiction of events from the Ramayana in the form of scrolls that are unrolled as the painter displays and explicates them. The vividly colourful images presented in this book occupy a special niche in the history of Indian art, remarkable because they are not only visual objects but narrative expositions of a text that has been part of vast numbers of the Indian people and often their source of moral guidance. Especially remarkable is that these patas by Bengali folk painters diverge so often from the magisterial Ramayanas of adikavi "First Poet" Valmiki, leave out important parts of it and import into the Rama saga episodes from local narrative caches.

CULTURE AND TRADITION OF WEST BENGAL

CULTURE AND TRADITION OF WEST BENGAL
Author: Sahanawaz Hussain
Publisher: Self publication
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2024-09-27
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN:

The Book “CULTURE AND TRADITION OF WEST BENGAL” by Sahanawaz Hussain highlights the different culture of west Bengal. The state west Bengal has a diverse culture. Author Sahanawaz Hussain highlights all the culture of different district of west Bengal starting from North Bengal to South Bengal. West Bengal boasts a rich literary and cultural heritage with evidenced by authors like Rabindranath Tagore,folk music like baul,Gambhira as well as Najrul Geeti,Rabindra Sangeet. West Bengal is the home of a thriving cinema industry dubbed “Tollywood”.throughout the year many festivals are celebrated in bengal.

Folk Arts of West Bengal and the Artist Community

Folk Arts of West Bengal and the Artist Community
Author: Tarapada Santra
Publisher:
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2011
Genre: Artisans
ISBN: 9788189738952

The folk arts of West Bengal have always been a treasure-trove of folk art in diverse forms, which found expression in almost every conceivable item of village life in earlier days. In this book, the author delves into the intricacies of the creative pattern of folk arts of Bengal, providing an overview of the vast array of art forms. The folk arts of West Bengal have always been a treasure-trove of folk art in diverse forms, which found expression in almost every conceivable item of village life in earlier days, starting from clay-built houses and corn-bins to folk painting,

A Story of Ambivalent Modernization in Bangladesh and West Bengal

A Story of Ambivalent Modernization in Bangladesh and West Bengal
Author: Pranab Chatterjee
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781433108204

This book details the evolution of Bengali culture (in both Bangladesh and West Bengal) since antiquity and argues for its modernization. Originally peripheral to Hindu civilization based in North India, Bengali culture was subjected to various forms of Sanskritization. Centuries of invasions (1204-1757) resulted most notably in the Islamization of Bengal. Often there were conflicts between Sanskritization and Islamization. Later colonization of Bengal by Britain (1757) led to a process of Anglicization, which created a new middle class in Bengal that, in turn, created a form of elitism among the Bengali Hindu upper caste. After British rule ended (1947), Bengali culture lost its elitist status in South Asia and has undergone severe marginalization. Political instability and economic insufficiency, as reflected by many quantitative and qualitative indicators, are common and contribute to pervasive unemployment, alienation, vigilantism, and instability in the entire region. A Story of Ambivalent Modernization in Bangladesh and West Bengal is appropriate not only for Bengali intellectuals and scholars but for sociologists, political scientists, cultural anthropologists, historians, and others interested in a case study of how and why a given culture becomes derailed from its path toward modernization.

Speaking with Pictures

Speaking with Pictures
Author: Roma Chatterji
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2020-11-29
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1000059189

Speaking with Pictures offers a path-breaking exploration of visual narratives in folk art. It foregrounds folk art’s engagement with modernity by re-looking at its figurative modes and the ways in which they are embedded in mythic thought. The book discusses folk art as a contemporary phenomenon which is a part of a complex visual culture where the ‘essence’ of tradition is best captured in a ‘new’ form or medium. Each chapter picks up a theme that moves between the local and the global, thereby attempting to problematise the stereotypical view of folk artists as carriers of ‘timeless tradition’. The volume provides an ethnographic account of innovations through a detailed analysis of the scroll painting tradition of the patuas of West Bengal and the Pardhan-Gond style of Madhya Pradesh, highlighting some recent attempts at inter-medium exchange in storytelling. The book will interest those in visual and popular culture in anthropology, sociology, literary criticism and folklore. It will also be of immense value to art historians, museologists, curators and NGOs working in media and communication, apart from those with a general interest in folk art.