The natural world is where our fundamental relationship with life begins and eventually dissolves. This is the central principle with which Tabiyat: Medicine and Healing in India welcomed its visitors through the sunlit hallway leading to the entrance of the Premchand Roychand gallery at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai. With potted medicinal plants like tulsi and aloe vera placed alongside the large windows, the facing wall had photographs of herbs used by healers in the Garo Hills in Meghalaya. In addition to their therapeutic value, some are believed to have “magical” properties— for instance, a leaf in the shape of an eye is considered to ward off the evil eye. As one entered the gallery, the voices of Mahalingam Nadar, a Nadi Vaidya (Pulse doctor) and Abdul Azim Kazi from Dharavi, echoed from one of the videos as they each spoke of their traditional systems of Siddha and Taweez having the ability to heal physical and psychological complaints.
Ratan Vaswani, the curator of the exhibition, highlights “the intimate connection between folk medical botany and modern pharmaceuticals” as he speaks about the long history of awareness of the inherent medicinal potency of plants, through an example of the myth of Hanuman carrying the mountain containing Sanjeevani herbs to heal a mortally wounded Lakshman. He says: “I was also interested in the extraordinary potential of ordinary people. We got untutored sign painters to produce exquisitely sensitive and accomplished work in a classical genre – sitting portraits, oil on canvas”. The objects included in this exhibition were captivating from both aesthetic and documentary perspectives, while simultaneously representing visual languages and media ranging from what we see today to what existed many centuries ago, weaving an intricate network of art, history, anthropology, sociology, popular culture, contemporary practice and traditional knowledge systems.
The exhibits were expansively categorised under “The Home”, “The Shrine”, “The Street” and “The Clinic”. But what emerged was how the street transposed into the clinic in the case of an ear-cleanser (a sight that can still be seen today), or of the shrine transforming into a place of relief through votive offerings. The body is what ultimately perceives and connects these notion of home, shrine, street and clinic and ‘Tabiyat’, as the word poetically suggests, encompasses all that is related to physical, psychological and spiritual wellbeing. The exhibition also presented social reflections on medical and cultural practices: a long pat
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painting evocatively narrated the trauma and ills of female foeticide; a lithograph from 1999 produced by UNESCO and AIIMS for an AIDS awareness campaign advertised Nirodh condoms. The success of this curation lies in its presentation of a common heritage within and across communities and consciously locating it in a museum that attracts audiences of diverse religious, regional, communal and economic demographics.
Tabiyat is one from a series of projects under the title Medicine Corner, initiated by the Wellcome Collections, UK in order to expand its exploration of parallel medical practices that have coexisted through generations of India’s multicultural heritage. Ratan Vaswani’s larger objective in his curation is unmissable, and eloquently articulated in his words: “The overwhelming majority of Indians live in poverty. But their lives and ways of thinking about the world are barely represented in museums. I wanted to provoke visitors to reflect on those elements of the fabric of Indian civilisation that are not reflected in grand monuments or endlessly displayed artefacts such as bronze sculptures of deities”. He credits the success of the project to his curatorial associates Lina Vincent and Supriya Menon; and Elise Foster Vader Elst and Sairandhri Raut who co-ordinated the entire production of this exhibition between London and Mumbai. The co-ordinated vision and effort of this team ultimately offered visitors a palpable experience to take back with them. It is not often that one gets a bird’s-eye view of parallel knowledge systems coexisting and operating in the realm of health and well-being. It is also not often that an exhibition of such quality and calibre is presented so close to home.
Malavika Rajnarayan
Tabiyat: Medicine and Healing in India, Premchand Roychand Gallery, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai, 12th January — 28th March, 2016.
Published in TAKE on Writing, Volume 2, Issue 2, July-December 2016
Malavika Rajnarayan 