A year-long interactive project is here to survey how contemporary experiences find expression in Indian epics
Vinay Varanasi
As the word goes, Ahalya — Brahma’s most beautiful creation in Ramayana — was cursed by her husband for infidelity. She was turned into a stone. Later, Rama arrived at Gautama’s hermitage and touched Ahalya’s stone body with his feet to liberate her from the curse. Vinay Varanasi, an artist and storyteller in Bengaluru, informs that the popular account is inexact and an extension of any patriarchal retelling of our epics. “Valmiki’s Ramayana narrates no such occurrence. When Gautama Rishi cursed Ahalya, he asked her to stay still and quiet, and turn her senses inward to be truly aware of the divine.
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While putting the curse on her, her husband also mentioned that since her senses will only engage with her inner self and not with the outside world, she will know when Rama or divinity touches her,” Varanasi elaborates, adding that the word ‘stone’ isn’t mentioned in the original text and can be interpreted as a symbol for Ahalya’s meditative state.
Varanasi’s art, Yoga-kshema, depicts that the divine resides in us
The Epic Project is an 11-month-long immersive storytelling session that focuses on modern conversations by tracing them back to bygone sagas. Aalaap, a Chennai-based arts outfit, has joined hands with Varanasi to explore our ever-changing relationship with Indian epics and their applicability in our current world.
About the topics for each session, Varanasi says they went ahead with themes that are part of routine happenings. As he discusses the objective of the session with this writer, he mentions anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder as concepts quite alive in Bhagavad Gita. “We feel these are new things because the terms were introduced in our vocabulary only a few years ago. But they did exist in ancient times, too. The first chapter of Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna Vishadayoga [often translated as Arjuna’s sorrow] is actually a lesson in anxiety. That realisation made Arjuna real for me,” he maintains. The storyteller feels such observations take epics beyond restrictive religious limits.
With one interaction every month, The Epic Project will also answer questions from attendees after each session. Some of the topics are called Women on the fringe, Wintering, Rituals, Antagonists and In the now. As per Varanasi, the project is especially meant for those who feel the need to realign with their roots.
On: One Saturday each month, 8 pm to 10 pm
Log on to: tikkl.com
Cost: Rs 400 onwards
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