Held in DAG, India, at a private museum collection of pre-modern and modern Indian art
Nasik-Nav Panchwati is attributed to the artist Sawalaram Laxman Haldankar. In this painting, the artist masterfully uses a light touch and a vibrant colour palette to depict one of the most significant pilgrimage sites associated with Rama. The artwork illustrates Panchwati, a sacred town located near Nasik in Maharashtra. According to tradition, during their fourteen years of exile, Rama, along with Sita and Lakshmana, made Panchwati their home. This area is believed to be part of the Dandakaranya forest mentioned in the Hindu epic Ramayana, where the trio resided during their banishment. The name "Panchwati" translates to "land of five banyan trees," which symbolise peace, devotion, and spiritual strength; it is said that five ancient banyan trees have stood there since the time of the Ramayana. Consequently, Haldankar's painting not only carries the weight of this epic narrative but also remains, at its core, a directly observed landscape.
The work serves as a compelling visual documentation of the pilgrimage site, showcasing remarkable detail: primarily featuring the pilgrims, who are mostly women, the temple structures, and the lush greenery that envelops parts of the area. Rather than presenting an idealised mythological tableau, Haldankar portrays Panchwati as a vibrant, functioning place of worship. The predominantly female pilgrims animate both the foreground and mid-ground, guiding the viewer's gaze through the composition, while the temple architecture firmly anchors the scene in devotion. Overarching foliage frames and partially conceals the site, creating a natural depth and a sense of enclosure befitting a sacred grove. This emphasis on everyday religious life reflects Haldankar's commitment to academic realism, characterised by his nuanced approach to light, texture, and atmosphere, particularly evident in his watercolours.
The painting serves as a prime example of why Haldankar is celebrated as a master of transparent watercolour. Critics in Bombay aptly coined the term "Open Air School" in their reviews, highlighting his delicate approach to transparent watercolour landscapes. The lightness of touch and the vivid yet gentle palette showcased here attest to his plein-air practice; the washes allow the texture of the handmade paper to breathe, imparting a translucency to the foliage that is unattainable in oil, while capturing the unique quality of Maharashtra light as it cascades across stone and canopy. Haldankar co-founded the Art Society of India in 1918, received the Lalit Kala Akademi Fellowship, and was recognised by an Italian encyclopedia as one of the three finest watercolourists in the world. "Nasik-Nav Panchwati," featured in Kishore Singh's Indian Landscapes, represents a confluence of his landscape artistry and India's devotional geography. This small-scale work encapsulates epic memory, living pilgrimage, and the plein-air watercolour tradition into a single luminous sheet.
The artwork Nasik-Nav Panchwati by Sawalaram Laxman Haldankar beautifully captures the legendary site of the Ramayana epic’s exile, which, in contrast to abstracted and often unrealistic depictions of the story, manages to be perfectly realistic in terms of India’s sacred geography. The painter managed to make it vividly clear by avoiding any abstracted depictions of the story and depicting the local vegetation and the rock-clad temples in the same skillful manner. That said, what sets the painter’s work apart from other traditional depictions of the epic is the utilization of the everyday life of the local people as the story’s background. The artist has effectively decided to focus on the depiction of a group of mainly women faithful to their religious practice as the center of the painting, thus uniting the scenery with the people in a single harmonious whole. This and many other characteristics of the author’s work are clearly seen in his painting, which is a masterpiece transparent watercolor painting.
