Yatra by Anjolie Ela Menon

The title of this painting refers to pilgrimage, long a feature of India’s diverse religious landscape. Anjolie Ela Menon has chosen as her subject a well-known pilgrimage that takes place annually in northern India. This pilgrimage honors the Hindu god Shiva and is marked by its distinctive participants, who carry decorated arches on their shoulders through the length of their journey. The pots dangling from the arches contain water from sacred sites along the Ganges River. Millions of participants join the pilgrimage each year.

For Menon, these pilgrims honor a devotional tradition that is centuries old, yet their colorful decorative arches represent the confluence of tradition and modernity. What may in times past have been adorned with flowers and fabrics are now draped with tinsel, aluminum foil, and plastic ornaments.

Moved by the pilgrims’ devotion, Menon has become sensitive to the relationship between faith and its external attributes. The pilgrimage, she says, is a “magical event transporting its protagonists to mystical heights that defy the tawdriness of its outer forms.”

Note that the figure who walks beyond the left edge of the painting is seen entering at the right edge. Perhaps Menon uses this compositional device to suggest the perpetually recurring nature of devotional pilgrimages.