From Jain Chronicles to Tales of the Kalpavriksh

Swati Parikh has traversed and transitioned to her second solo show of paintings and her known commitment to her Faith remains firmly intact as the content is driven from Jainism literature again. From February 2021 to February 2022, while the Pandemic has stayed around in varying degrees, Swati seems to have stuck too to her unstated resolve to be back with more about the tales from her Faith of Jainism.

Her solemn show of oil and water colour paintings titled Kalpvriksh actually ended at Amdavad ni Gufa Gallery on Sunday February 06.

So as the name indicates, this time she returned with interesting accounts of the varieties of the Kalpavriksha also known as Kalptaru or Tree of Life, which as per the legend is known to grant a wish of a seeker who visits to be under its ‘umbrella’ and asks for the favour! While generally it is believed as per the broad Hindu belief which must run across the Indic faiths that the sole tree is known to grant any wish of any kind, the Jain scriptures seem to go many steps further in detailing this Tree of Life into ten categories, each category being associated in turn with a specific class of material comfort or platonic nourishment considered essential for sustaining human life in an evolved civilization.

So we see Swati’s giant 6 feet by 4 feet works dedicated to depicting these varieties of the Kalptaru. For example you have the Chitra Rasang that is endowed with the capability of providing eighteen varieties of delicious food to take care of not merely the minimum need of food to sustain the body, but much more than that by way of nourishing both the body and the mind; as a commoner also craves for many flavours of food and cuisine if not all the chhappan bhog – the fifty six traditional delicacies reserved and offered to our Gods on special occasions.

Then there are the varieties that are associated with housing and shelter and clothing and apparels. That taken care of, there are the forms called Jyotishikhaang and Deepshihaang that are capable of giving the humans the much needed sunshine or the luminous light for an illuminated path both physically as well as metaphorically!

Since a human being must have her leisure time and feel entertained and enriched soulfully in life, there is the Kalpavriksh called Turyang that can play 49 kinds of musical instruments and cater to the need of the genre of performing arts. Or there is more varieties like Aniyat that can grant any unspecified article and need in a human life that’s ever marching on the enrichment path both quantitatively and qualitatively, though discretions are always warranted and put in place by the wise men – the new sages of the present times.

Besides these ten major works in oils rendered on canvas, Swati created and displayed in this just concluded show, two more series in watercolours. Of these the first named Songs of the Spring is evidently about the Spring Season aptly included in the show to time it with the season just ushered in after the just gone Uttarayan followed by Vasant Panchami, which are our two major harbingers for the onset and signaling of this pleasant change of seasons.

The second series also in watercolours is again about Jain Munis depicting from Muldevo, Chilaiputto, Panjjuno to Pupfchula to some others. These watercolours in both series are mostly done in portrait format all in the size of 16.5″ to 11.7″.

The style adopted by Swati for her works is subdued and somber – her forms innocent and free of constraints of size or proportions – while her choice of colours remains soft as if in continuation of the works created in her first solo of Feb 2021 and dictated perhaps by the overarching ethos of the Faith she practices and believes in.

All works in the Kalpvriksha series feature twosomes or couples as “beneficiaries” or “devotees in unison” of the bonanza granted by the subject of reverence which is portrayed both literally or symbolically as the giver of its typical “fruit” for the continuance of a life full of love and contentment.

The overall appeal of the works comes off as of a certain subtlety, innocence, abundance in nature to fulfill the needs of the mankind and mutual peace. If only the mankind unlearns its disastrous models and relearns the natural way forward in the post modern world.

We wish Swati the best for her chosen themes as she would continue with her passion and pursuit after the success of her two shows till now.