Bhogi Pallu: The Beginning and End

Matte medium, tracing paper, linoleum block prints, rice, rose petals, monofilament

Artist Statement:

This piece is a glimpse into my upcoming senior thesis. It deals with how my relationship with my culture has evolved over time. The piece focuses on Bhogi Pallu, a Hindu ceremony in which kids take part from when they are born until the age 10. Bhogi Pallu is a ceremony meant to cleanse and purify kids of dishti, or bad energy caused by people adoring, saying good things about, or envying them. The elder women in the family shower the children with flowers, cherries, rice, and coins, in order to cleanse them. The rice is supposed to symbolize abundance in their future. 

The hanging cherries in the middle of the piece as well as the rice and flower petals on the ground symbolize the bhogi pallu ceremony and how it was a tradition for me and my brother as we grew up. It was the ceremony that began my relationship with my religion and culture and something I always took pride in. It represents my youth as a proud Indian and Hindu.

The curtain in the backfilled with block prints represents a continuation of my childhood into my middle school and early high school years. The red dots represent bindi and how I used to wear it every day but slowly lost the tradition after being ridiculed. This marks the beginning of my relationship with my religion falling apart. The two black curtains refer to stories from the Jataka Tales, a book of Indian Tales which my grandparents used to tell me as a child, each having a life moral attached to them. The specific stories I reference are ‘The Clever Crab and Wicked Crane’ and ‘The Crow, The Turtle, and The Deer’. In the stories, the Crane and the Turtle are both greedy the crow even betrays the crab to eat him. This represented my greed and attempts to fit in, or fit the ‘American mold’. After being criticized by classmates I would lose parts of my culture and even turn on it, representing how I was losing touch. The gold pattern represents traditional Indian textiles, specifically banarasi fabric, which is used for fine Indian clothing. It represents my attachment to Indian clothing my whole life and despite losing touch many times, my effort to continue my relationship with my culture and religion. It demonstrates the continuation of my relationship with my culture and how I have gotten back to being proud of it.