“Bharatmata”
“Bharatmata” is a beautiful gouache and tempera painting on paper from 1905. It is the most well-known piece by the Indian artist and founder of the Bengal school of art, Abanindranath Tagore. The Bengal school of art provided the foundation for modern art in India today.
“Bharatmata” or “Mother India” is depicted wearing the traditional saffron sari of the sādhvī. She is displayed with four arms as a Hindu deity. Tagore placed Bharatmata standing on the earth giving gifts of both education and religious faith to her children. These symbolic gifts include the Vedas (the oldest Indian writings of Hindu scriptures and Sanskrit literature), rice, mala (Hindu prayer beads), and a white cloth.
This image of Mother India as representative of the motherland came to prominence during the early twentieth century during the Swadeshi movement; India’s independence movement. This is one of the earliest depictions of her. Today, she is remembered as a very important symbol because of the emotional and historical significance she played during India’s nationalism movement. Tagore’s painting was so popular that it was issued as a lithograph in 1910 to be more accessible to the general public.
“Bharatmata” is currently in the private collections of the Rabindra Bharati Society and has been generously lent for display at the Victoria Memorial Hall museum in Kolkata, India.
For more on Abanindranath Tagore, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
