CHENNAI: He inspired a whole generation of archaeologists, scholars and connoisseurs of art.
Trawl the web and you will find links to dozens of Dr C Sivaramamurti’s works. But it will be a struggle if you also want to put a face to them. Photo opportunities he had many, as he was the director of the prestigious National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.
However, instead of sticking his neck out at every photo op, he believed in letting his work do the talking.
Being an authority on Indian iconography, especially that of Nataraja, Dr Sivaramamurti was a much sought-after guest lecturer, both at home and abroad. His colleagues recall that he would often go into raptures while delivering lectures on the Lord of Dance.
“I heard his lecture on Nataraja as a student of Fine Arts in Baroda. He could see the pantheon of Siva in its various dimensions. We were all floored,” reminisces Dr Rajeev Lochan, the current director of the National Museum.
However, Dr Sivaramamurti had little patience for social dos. Kanchi sage Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati found this trait of his personality curious. So he conferred on him the title of Vichitrachitta. In Sivaramamurti’s own words, the term refers to “a person who is always curious to know, to learn, to explore, to experiment and to excel”. It was an honorific title, which was once associated with Pallava king Mahendra Varman I.
Sivaramamurti was the first man to break the myth that Indian art forms were saddled with the burden of conventions like Shilpa Shastras, says T Satyamurthi, former superintending archaeologist, Chennai circle of ASI. “For a long time, there had been a view, especially among the westerners, that such conventions blocked creativity in India. He disproved this and demonstrated through his work that Indian artists had the liberty to go beyond the boundaries.”
His work on south Indian paintings offered a fresh insight on Chola paintings, reveals N Hari Narayana, former director of the Chennai Museum.
R Nagaswamy, former director of State archaeology department, who had the opportunity to work with Sivaramamurti as a member of the Art Purchases Committee of the National Museum, echoes the high esteem he was held in. “Sivaramamurti was the only person who could immediately identify any art form — be it painting or sculpture — and decipher its age, region and say what theme it represented.”
And as Oscar Wilde rightly summed up: “No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist,” likewise, Sivaramamurti drew heavily from ancient Indian literature. “With ease, he used to say how a particular art form’s theme relates to a particular motif expressed in an ancient text (or inscription) like classics of Kalidasa,” Nagaswamy points out.
His unparalleled scholarship and enthusiasm were best described by former boss Grace Morley, who wrote in his obituary in Bhavan’s Journal, “He represented a unique combination of extensive and profound knowledge of the Vedic and Sanskrit literature, of iconography, of the arts of India from ancient to modern times, not rivalled by any other Indian or foreign scholar.”