Earlier this year, my film crew and I travelled to Kundalpur, a little town near Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. It was past midnight when we reached, yet the place was bustling with activity and crowds: people were arriving in hordes, in hired taxis, cars and busses. Families with bundles of luggage walked along the road in the hundreds, large makeshift tents or pandals were being prepared on one side, while little stalls of fruits and snacks dotted the other. Bright LED lights illuminated the road, while loudspeakers blared with devotional songs, chants, and announcements.
A historical pilgrimage site for Jains in India, Kundalpur was hosting the Mahamahotsav, an important festival where thousands of Jain pilgrims were congregating for over a fortnight of rituals, worship, and darshan.
But we were not there on pilgrimage.
Interesting proposition
Two weeks before this trip, I had received an email with a very interesting proposition from Dr Eberhard Fischer, former Director of the Museum Rietberg in Zurich and renowned Swiss art historian. He informed me that he had been in correspondence with Priyank Jain of Delhi regarding a set of photographs taken by him of an eminent Digambar Jain ascetic, Acharya Vidyasagar, and his ailing guru, Acharya Gyansagar, nearly 50 years ago.
In his email he said:
“In 1973 when traveling in MP and Rajasthan with Jyotindra Jain to acquaint myself with Jainism, we met this very impressive monk—more or less my age and already then much advanced in his search of knowledge and truth. It was a unique meeting of two days in a village near Pratabgarh: the Acharya was on the move with his old teacher (for whom he cared with great attention) and a young acolyte. The Acharya not only allowed me to photograph him performing duties like preaching, meditating, but also record his way of sleeping in hay, walking in town, eating standing, and caring for his old teacher....
...I am told by Priyank Jain that these are unique documents of the youthful Muni who is now most revered and honoured.”
This field work that Dr Fischer undertook with his colleague Jyotindra Jain led to the exhibition, “Art and Rituals: 2,500 years of Jainism” at the Museum Rietberg, a first on Jainism in Switzerland, perhaps even in Europe. When I received this email, I too was on field work, filming Jain pilgrimage sites and practices for films to accompany a second exhibition on Jainism, also at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich.
Dr Fischer, who was invited to meet the Acharya in person to share these photographs, now proposed that he could delegate me to hand them over in person, on his behalf. The idea immediately appealed to me and I gladly accepted the offer.
On speaking with Priyank Jain over phone, I was told of the years and collective effort it took them to locate Dr Fischer, having only known that “a certain German historian” was responsible for these photographs.
“Tracking Dr Fischer to Switzerland and then to the Museum Rietberg took us nearly three years. When we finally had his phone number, and he answered our call, we were delighted,” Priyank Jain said.
What an honor, I thought, to be the messenger, and be able to present these photographs taken nearly fifty years ago, in person.
Discussing the pictures. | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement
Presenting the images
The images were first shown to the Acharya and his disciples in a private tent, where he was resting after a long ceremony. His disciples stood around us as Priyank and I presented the photographs to him. He looked at them carefully, smiled, and nodded at the photograph of him massaging his guru. I mentioned that Dr Fischer asked me to pass on his gratitude for all the help that the Acharya had offered many years ago. He looked up, then gently raised his hand and blessed us.
News spread fast. Soon these photographs became the talking point, and many of his disciples came to examine them in great detail. Some recognised faces in the photographs, some spoke of Acharyaji’s characteristic hand gestures, even the things he had around him were observed with meticulous scrutiny.
Over the next days, the photographs were presented to dignitaries and Ministers who visited the event. During the four days we spent there, countless people saw them, and often wanted to be photographed alongside the photographs. Many sought copies and noted my contact details.
As Dr Fischer had rightly described in his email to me, Acharya Vidyasagar is truly an “extraordinary personality”. But encountering him and his personality in a setting like the Kundalpur Mahamahotsav was beyond extraordinary an experience.
Harsha Vinay is co-curator of the exhibition, “Being Jain: Art and Culture of an Indian Religion”, at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, Switzerland, which began on November 18, 2022, and runs until April 30, 2023.
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