The Fight between Tasma Shah and the City-Dwelling Ogre

Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury The Fight between Tasma Shah and the City-Dwelling Ogre This is an illustrated scene from Hindusthani Upakatha, published in Calcutta 1912. The drawing is based on a traumatic event in the story of the Seven Princes where Tasma Shah confronts an Ogre resident in the city. Instead of approaching the episode simply as a realistic battle scene, Upendrakishore injects both a sense of narrative clarity and a note of humourous and imaginative characterisation to the episode. His figures are animated by lively gestures and dynamic outlines from which the viewer can instantly grasp the situation. The work is typical of his style of illustrating children’s books, in which visual story-telling runs parallel with the narrative. This illustration is especially interesting for its interplay of naturalism and caricature. "Upendrakishore's illustrations for the Hindusthani Upakatha were characterized by the 'lively blending of naturalism and caricature, pale washes and minute narrative', according to art historian Tapati Guha-Thakurta. The effect of washes provides tonal variation, while the ink lines help define the figures and details. A later annotation of illustrations from his Hindusthani Upakatha attributes their medium as watercolour and ink on paper. The illustration is also relevant for an understanding of Upendrakishore's larger impact on Bengali visual culture. Apart from being a prolific writer and painter, he was also instrumental in setting up printing and illustration as a means of production. These illustrations ensured that children’s literature developed a close bond with visual art in Bengal in the early part of the twentieth century. It is a significant work in the Hindusthani Upakatha series because it serves not only as a visual accompaniment to the folklore but also as an embodiment of the coming together of story, wit, art and modern technique of reproduction.